Artificial light desaturation process

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for compensating, controlling, mixing and saturating/desaturating colors produced by or emitted from LED artificial light sources through use of multiple channel, LED controllers to control the proportion of constituent colors each to the other, to control the intensity level of the total light output of the mixed, desaturated light during and after color mixing and/or saturation/desaturation by simultaneously increasing and decreasing power to the constituent color LEDs at the same rate, and once a desired color has been produced, changing the intensity/brightness and/or degree of saturation of the produced color without changing the hue of the produced color.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a divisional of U.S. nonprovisional application Ser.No. 15/614,596, filed Jun. 5, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No. 10,143,058, issuedNov. 27, 2018, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 62/344,996, filed Jun. 3, 2016, the disclosure ofwhich U.S. provisional patent application is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The invention relates generally to systems and processes forcompensation of light produced by artificial light sources and lightsensed by digital camera light sensors, or light sensed by conventionalfilm cameras using conventional film stock so that the resulting objectimage light mimics natural light when viewed by humans on media such astelevision, motion pictures and computer monitors. Thus, the presentsystems and processes compensate for artificial light sources and fordigital camera sensors, as well as for conventional cameras/film stockso that the object image shown on the display appears to the humanviewer to have the same hue, intensity, and saturation value as does theactual object when illuminated by natural light.

BACKGROUND

From the early days of the film industry, lighting has been an integralpart of the movie making experience. Due to lack of sensitivity to lightinherent in the types of film stock then used, artificial lighting wasrequired in order to produce images on the screen that looked normal tothe average human eye. The amount of light required for those earlyproductions was excessive by today's standards, but was necessary inorder to produce a realistic scene. Even today, the most technologicallyadvanced, fully digital cameras, which are more sensitive to light thanprior cameras, require some amount of light. Controlling this light isessential in order to produce images that reproduce well on theaterscreens, on televisions and on computer monitors. Each of the new,sophisticated movie digital cameras and still digital cameras respond tolight and color in its own particular way. This is due to differences inwhich each camera manufacturer develops and adapts the photo sensorsused in its cameras. Detailed information on the different types of andmethods of configuring sensor arrays, and technical specifications forsensor arrays and technical specifications for commercially availablecameras are publicly available.

As used herein, the term “luminaire” or “fixture” or “light source”refers to a complete light source, a light emitting device or a lightfixture including control circuitry, if used. As is well known to thoseskilled in this field, the light output from commercially availableluminaires varies in intensity and color, depending on the technologyused, such as incandescent, fluorescent, high intensity discharge, etc.Even within the same technology variations from one luminaire to anotherare common. For example, variations in color and intensity of light arevery noticeable even when comparing a new bulb to a same technology bulbmade by the same manufacturer and that is at or near its end of life. Asis well known to those skilled in this field, several fixtures fromdiffering technologies are often used to illuminate a movie set and thetalent, people and objects on the set. In recording any scene on theset, one typical goal is to have the light look as if it is emitted froman identical or similar source. In order to achieve this “similar sourcelook” lighting technicians typically rely on conventional mechanicaldevices that assist in diminishing the luminance from a particular lightsource, or they modify the color emitted and as required for aparticular shot. These devices include filters of various densities,gels of varying colors and densities, diffusion panels, scrims,intensifiers, and louvers. Also, many conventional lighting fixturesprovide integrated focusing mechanisms that are used in combination withspecial lenses that allow “flood” and “spot” control of the lightemitted from the fixture. “Flood” control produces a soft light that inturn produces soft shadows. “Spot” control focuses the emitted lightinto a narrow, tight, intense beam to highlight a particular section ofthe set.

Various other conventional methods of electronically dimming, that islowering or raising the intensity of the light and rudimentary forms ofcolor mixing are available to lighting technicians for trying to achievethe desired light intensity and color. However, conventional dimming islimited in use and is problematic in that it can produce undesiredeffects such as flicker and audible noise. Conventional color mixing,that is, rapid changes from one color to another color, is achieved byuse of color wheels, gel color scrollers or cyc strips that are remotelycontrolled, usually via DMX or RDM protocol, as is well known to thoseskilled in this field. Also, in order to desaturate a color, a second,unfiltered unit, usually a white source, is placed next to the unitproducing the color and is lowered or raised in intensity in order toproduce the intended hue and/or degree of desaturation. Thisconventional solution in turn typically creates an intensity problem,and requires additional, typically by trial and error, efforts toachieve an acceptable intensity of the combined or mixed color. In thefinal stage of addressing these conventional problems is the problem ofincreasing or decreasing the intensity (ies) of the constituent colorsin order to achieve the desired color at the desired intensity.

Color Mixing Problems Associated with Conventional LED-Based Lightingand Conventional, Adjustable Luminaire Settings

With the introduction of LED technology into this lighting field, moresophisticated controls for color and intensity have been developed. Whenused in combination with conventional means of light control mentionedpreviously, these sophisticated controls provide a more flexible andrepeatable way of controlling the color and intensity of the lightemitted from the source. New LED chips are continuously being developed,and these LED light sources typically provide higher lumen output whileproviding many, well-saturated color combinations and the ability todesaturate these colors as needed. However, known conventional methodsfor LED light control also have problems. These problems are essentiallythe same problems as found with conventional methods of color controldescribed herein. When mixing, saturating or desaturating a specificcolor, the intensity of the light is typically either raised or lowered,and this light intensity change can potentially change the way the coloris processed by the camera sensors, with variations on acamera-by-camera basis. As used herein the terms “light intensity” or“intensity” refers to the brightness of light emanating from a lightsource, and is measured in terms of “lumens”, with the term “lumen”defined to mean “a unit of luminous flux in the International System ofUnits, that is equal to the amount of light given out through a solidangle by a source of one candela intensity radiating in all directions.”As used herein the term “luminance” refers to and means candela persquare meter (cd/m²). Luminance is a photometric measure of the luminousintensity per unit area of light traveling in a given direction, thatis, the amount of light that passes through, is emitted or reflectedfrom a particular area, and falls within a given solid angle. As is usedherein the term “power” refers to the power that is input to a lightsource, measured in “watts” (“W”) and with the term “watt” defined tomean the amount of work done by a circuit in which one ampere of currentis driven by one volt. As used herein the term “efficacy” means lumensper watt. Thus, as used herein the term intensity refers to thebrightness of a light source, the term luminance refers to the intensityof light per unit area in a given direction, the term power refers tothe electrical energy supplied to, or used by the light source toproduce light and the term efficacy refers to the efficiency orcapability of the light source to convert electrical energy into light.Also, as used herein the term “color” refers to and includes theconcepts of “hue” or what is generally referred to as the color ofsomething, the intensity, as referred to above, and the degree of“saturation” of a color, which means the degree or amount of white lightthat is mixed with some other color. For the purposes of the presentsystems and processes, a mixed white light, that is, a mixture of arelatively warm white and a relatively cool white light is preferablyused. More specifically, as used herein white LED light is light that isproduced by an LED that has one of several phosphor coatings, dependingon the degree of warmness or coolness of the white desired.

Because of the wide variations in light sensors and in processingelectronic signals corresponding to the light sensed from digital camerato digital camera, controlling the light sensed and then output fromdigital cameras presents additional problems in this field. Morespecifically, mixing colors including red, green, blue (RGB), amber (A),cool white and warm white represents specific problems for electronicshutter image capture devices, e.g., digital cameras. Different camerasfrom different manufacturers capture and process color differently fromeach other. These differences in color capturing and processing areconsidered to be significant differentiators between manufacturers anddevices, and cause additional problems when cameras from differentmanufacturers are used on the same set.

To process color in a conventional digital camera, light is exposed tolight-sensitive “pickups”, or sensors in the camera. The cameratypically includes filters that separate full spectrum light intodiscrete red, green, and blue channels. Different designs for differentcameras have different ratios of each red-, green-, and blue-filteredpickups in an attempt to create what each design considers the best ormost desirable final image that is to be viewed by humans. Just ashumans have “sensors” to perceive color and intensity in a particularway, so too do the various models of camera, varying from manufacturerto manufacturer. As a result there is variety in the colorrepresentations in the final image output from the cameras for the sameinput. In other words, for the same scene having the same lighting,different color will be output from different digital cameras. Becauseof these different color output differences that result from differentdesign choices, no camera from one manufacturer will render a colorrepresentation image equal to the color representation image of anycamera from another manufacturer, for the same object under the samelighting conditions. In other words the final image output will bedifferent when different digital cameras are used to record the samescene under the same lighting conditions, regardless of the source(s) ofthe light.

In this field conventional RGB color mixing is typically performed byadjusting the intensity of each color using one of several electroniccontrol methods commonly available. One such example is an LED-based RGBarrangement of LEDs, i.e., a light source using a conventional, 8-bitcontrol, referred to as DMX, offering 256 discrete levels of intensityper color (including the absence of output or absence of power, which isthe first level or “0” setting). One exemplary conventional system usescolors produced by one or more circuits supplying equal power to theLED(s), with each color in an individual circuit channel and each colorcontrolled by an individual channel controller. In this example, whenall three channels are operating at full power, the resulting blendedcolor is a relatively low resolution variation of white based on theconstituent wavelengths of light emitted from each of the colored LEDs,the power supplied to each LED and the relative efficacy of each LED.Even slight variations in wavelength of emitted light, power supplied toand/or efficacy of each LED can result in significantly differentresults in terms of intensity and/or color of light emitted from thelight source(s). Because different cameras have different sensitivitiesto, and outputs for red, green and blue, respectively, each camera hasthe capability to capture and output any of 16,581,375 available,slightly different colors when using conventional 8-bit DMX protocol.

Another source of problems with color control for cameras, both digitaland non-digital, relates to reproducing the color white. As is wellknown in this field, many different “white” lights are known, that is,many shades or variations of white are known, such as warm white andcool white. In this field the various white colors are associated with aspecific Kelvin (K) temperature and typically referred to as correlatedcolor temperature (CCT). As is also well known in this field, whenproducing an image from light reflected from an object, a photographeror cinematographer typically must choose a single CCT white to be usedas a neutrally exposed, non-colored region of the desired image. As anexample, choosing a 3200K film stock or selecting the same setting on anelectronic shutter-based camera results in a perfect white, non-coloredimage when photographing a non-colored white object being illuminatedwith a 3200K light source. However, in the real world of photography andcinematography, particularly in this field, many different sources of“white” light are available and used. Many such sources of whitelight—both natural and artificial sources—would not appear “white” on acamera balanced for only a particular CCT, such as 3200K.

With respect to the color white problem or issue, at present, severaldifferent Kelvin temperature film stocks currently are commerciallyavailable and a wide range of white balance settings are available onconventional, electronic shutter-based cameras. Use of different filmstocks and/or different camera settings are necessary if, for instance,the warm glow “white” from a sunset or a campfire is to appear colorlessand white on camera while the same camera must also be able to renderthe cool “white” from an office fluorescent light to be colorless andwhite. A growing trend in image capture-intended luminaires is theintegration of multicolor sources (such as RGB LEDs) within eachluminaire and light from these sources is blended to produce a desired,white CCT. The blending typically is accomplished through use ofconventional electronic control devices such as pulse width modulation(PWM) controllers or similar devices. The blended output of thesemulticolor luminaires can be adjusted for Kelvin temperature, hue,saturation and other parameters. In the present state of the colorblending art these adjustments are made manually and relative only tothe capabilities of the luminaire(s)—not to the camera—because, as iswell known in this field, adjusting these parameters for a particularcamera's color sensitivity is not intuitive.

Also, as is well known, in many specific lighting control situations,calibration of the camera(s) is needed or used. In a general,conventional lighting control instance, one level of hue, brightness andwhite balance control is provided by controlling the light output of theluminaires. Within this context, in some situations, the luminairecontrols are set or fixed, but yet there is a need to further control oradjust one or more of hue, brightness, white balance, and suchadditional control can be achieved by controlling or calibrating aspectsof the camera(s) used to record images. Conventional cameras can, and,in many instances must, be calibrated either in coordination withluminaire control or separately in order to achieve the desired colorthat is displayed on an output device, such as a monitor. Conventionalcamera calibration processes and techniques present additionalchallenges and problems in environments where color mixing, whitebalance control and saturation/desaturation are needed either inconjunction with luminaire control or independently of luminairecontrol. As is presently believed, in the conventional solution to theabove-stated problems, for each “type” or “brand” of digital camera,calibration is accomplished manually and through trial and error effortsto compensate for the hue, brightness and white balance, based on thecamera's known color sensitivity. The aspect of conventional colorcompensation though camera calibration is made on a per camera basisbecause of the differences in color sensitivity and processing amongmanufacturers and sensor types. The resulting, final image (after beingprocessed by the camera) displays the color the photographer orcinematographer originally intended, which typically is the color as itwould appear to the human eye under natural lighting conditions. Anexample of the importance of such color compensation or color renderingwould be the capturing of a prominently featured red dress on the leadactress of a feature film. The subtleties of which shade of red or theconsistency of the red color of the dress under different lightingconditions may have significant bearing on the success of the film.Capturing and uniform rendering of the color of the red dress, withoutcolor compensation and under different lighting conditions, such as dayphotography, night photography, the use of natural lighting, artificiallighting, or a mix of the two typically would create significantchallenges because the final red color rendering of the dress would bedifferent under each lighting condition.

White Light Problems Associated with Conventional Color Mixing Processesfor LED Light Sources—and Compensated Color Mixing withKelvin-Adjustable Desaturation Solutions

Conventional LED-based lighting systems and color mixing processes haveseveral problems associated with color mixing and use of white light incolor mixing. Four of these known problems that are addressed by thepresent systems and processes relate to problems associated with (i)brightness of colors that result from color mixing, (ii) quality ofwhite light produced when color mixing is used to produce white light,(iii) mixing of different sources of white light and (iv) desaturating anon-white color light with white light.

Color Mixing Brightness Problem

Regarding conventional mixing of colors to yield a new color, such asmixing red and green to produce yellow, achieving accurate control ofthe brightness of the produced color is a problem that the conventionalsystems and processes have not been able to adequately solve. Consider,for example, mixing of primary red with primary green to yield yellow,to yield the correct brightness of the resulting yellow is an example ofthis problem. In conventional processes, the brightness of the resultingyellow color would be the sum of the brightness of the two constituentcolors. In this example, the brightness of the red added to thebrightness of the green used to create a particular shade or hue ofyellow and could be as high as twice the brightness or double thebrightness of the two mixed colors, such as when full power red is mixedwith full power green. This conventional color mixing process in turncauses problems during filming or recording of specific scenes, due tovarying brightness of differently mixed colors, and uneven capturing andreproducing colors on digital cameras and output media. For, example, ayellow produced by mixing of red at 100% of power with green at 100% ofpower could yield a yellow at twice the brightness of the constituentcolors, but a different hue of yellow produced by mixing, for example,red at 100% with green at 50% power would yield a different hue ofyellow and at a brightness of possibly 1.5 times the brightness of thered and three times the brightness of the green. This color mixingbrightness problem occurs when mixing a non-white color with any shadeof white color, and with mixing two or more shades of white with eachother. The mixing of a pure non-white color with varying amounts of awhite color is also referred to as “desaturation,” and is described ingreater detail herein. This color brightness problem also occurs whenmixing two or more different shades of white colors, as also describedherein. In general, and in common for this type of problem, theconventional process simply adds one or more colors of light, eachhaving its own intensity or brightness, to the chosen, base light, withits own intensity. The result of this typical mixing is that thebrightness or intensity of the final, mixed color is the sum of theintensity (or brightness) of each component color and is greater thanthe individual intensity of any one of the component colors, regardlessof whether the component colors are non-white and non-white; non-whiteand white; or white and white. The specific shade or Kelvin temperatureof white used in any of these types of mixing introduces another set ofproblems, as also described herein.

Color Mixing to Produce White Light Problem

Regarding conventional production of white light from non-white colorsof light, it is well known that tri-stimulus color mixing (RGB) providesa very broad range of blended final colors, including the mixing ofcolors to produce white light. However, as is well known in this field,when LED-sourced colors are mixed to create white light, a relativelylow resolution and low quality white light results. Because high qualitywhite light is made up of the entire visible spectrum, it is notpossible to create high quality white light simply by blending only red,green, and blue light. Also, while it is known that the addition oflight from another source, such as from a phosphor-white colored LEDsource, can help improve the quality of the final white light produced,this option is very limited in practice and is not capable of producingthe highest quality of white light.

While the conventional solution to the color mixing to produce whitelight problem is use of multicolored light sources, and offersflexibility for adjusting the final output color white so that the finalwhite light is within the human visible spectrum, this solution comeswith a significant cost, i.e., relatively low quality of the white lightproduced. Also, while single, non-adjustable colored lights may bedesired for some uses in which only a single, specific shade of whitelight is needed, the entertainment-based image capture field hashistorically desired and needed the ability to change the outputparameters of lighting to meet ever-changing needs, including the needto produce various shades of high quality white light. This white lightquality problem is believed to be solved with the presently disclosedsystems and processes, as described in detail below.

From a photographic and cinematic point of view, artificial lighting isused to simulate the white produced by natural sources such as the sun,or fire, and white produced by other artificial light sources. As iswell known in this field, natural white light from the sun from thepoint of view of a human standing on earth at midday or at sunsetprovide vastly different shades of white, and simulation of these vastlydifferent shades of white presents significant challenges in the currentstate of the art. Because all or virtually all cameras used in thisfield, including film cameras, require the operator to choose thedesired shade of white to appear “white” on camera during image capture,the differences between shades of white, and the ability to adjust fordifferent shades of white under different conditions (such as earlymorning, midday or sunset, for example) is very important in this field.In the image capture market, the particular shade of white used by acamera is referred to as “white balance” and choosing and adjusting fordifferences in shades of white light requires the camera operator tochoose a specific white balance, typically by choosing a specificsetting on a camera, with the settings representing a wide range ofshades of white. Such settings are typically found on cameras used inthe cinematic, entertainment and photographic image capture field ormarkets.

Desaturation of a Non-White Color with White Light Problem

In current desaturation processes, otherwise unused portions of red,green, and blue light are typically employed to desaturate a chosen orpredetermined base-color. As referred to herein, the terms “saturated”and “desaturated” mean and refer to the percentage of pure light of apredetermined, base color as compared to the percentage of light of thepredetermined, base color after the base color has been mixed with whitelight regardless of the quality of the white light. Thus, for apredetermined, base color of light that is 100% pure of thatpredetermined color, that light is said to be saturated, fully saturatedor 100% saturated. As a first example of saturation/desaturation, if thepredetermined, base color is primary red and the light underconsideration is 100% primary red, then that light is referred to assaturated, fully saturated or 100% saturated red. If a predetermined,base color of light, such as primary red, is mixed with white light suchthat 50% of the light is primary red and 50% is white light, then thatlight is referred to as 50% saturated red or 50% desaturated red. As asecond saturation/desaturation example, if the predetermined, base coloris primary blue and the mixed light has 40% primary blue light and 60%white light, the resulting color is referred to as either 60%desaturated blue, or 40% saturated blue light. As a thirdsaturation/desaturation example, consider a predetermined, base color tobe a shade of yellow. Yellow is the color resulting from mixing primaryred and primary green, and a particular predetermined or base color thatis a shade of yellow may be created from the many shades of yellowpossible, depending on the percentage of red and green, respectively,used to create the base color yellow. Thus, for a particular base colorof yellow, if that yellow was 75% desaturated, that yellow color wouldhave 25% of the base shade of yellow light and 75% of white light, andcould also be referred to as 25% saturated yellow.

The problematic effects of conventional color mixing are particularlynoticeable when RGB is mixed for the purpose of producing white lightand then using white light to desaturate a base color. One conventionalprocess of producing desaturated light typically comprises using theunused portions of red, green, and/or blue to create white light andthen using that white light to desaturate the chosen base color oflight. A second, alternate conventional process of producing desaturatedlight is mixing RGB with an additional white LED-sourced light. As isknown to those skilled in this field, this second desaturation techniquedoes result in a better quality white than the first technique. However,the quality requirements for the cinema and television industries arevery stringent for white light, and the goal of any artificial lightingsystem is accurate mimicking of natural light. While mixing RGB with orwithout an additional source of white light may be reasonable andacceptable for commercial or residential lighting, it is widelyconsidered to be unacceptable for high-end applications such as formotion pictures, television, museums, etc.

As is well known to those skilled in this field, many variations ofwhite light exist, with each hue of white associated with a specificKelvin temperature (K). Also mixing of different Kelvin temperaturewhite light is known in this field, and is commonly referred to asbi-color white mixing. One commercially available system and process ofcolor mixing of white light has been available since 2010 from LiteGear,Inc., as its Hybrid™ brand white light. In one example of white lightmixing, a 3000K (warm) white light could be mixed with a 6000K (cool)white light from two separate channels of LED emitted white light,resulting in a 4500K white light. This process of mixing could takeplace on a single printed circuit board, with two different channels ofwhite light crossfaded to achieve the desired Kelvin temperature whitelight. In this example, the 3000K white light emitters would be poweredfrom a first, single channel and start at, for example one watt of power(which could be defined or referred to as full power), and the 6000Kwhite light emitters would be powered from a second, single channel andstart at zero power output. During cross fading, as the power of the3000K emitters is decreased, the power of the 6000K emitters isincreased at the same rate, while the total output power would bemaintained at one watt. In this example of white light mixing, theKelvin temperature of the white light output changes from a relativelywarm white to a relatively cool white, until the chosen or desiredKelvin temperature white is reached. However, use of such mixed orHybrid™ white light has not been previously used to desaturate a fullysaturated color, regardless of whether the fully saturated color is aprimary color or a non-white, mixed color.

In sum and substance, several significant problems exist withconventional color mixing including varying of brightness during coloradjustment, color mixing to produce white light, mixing of differenthues of white and desaturating colored light. These problems associatedwith conventional color mixing processes in turn cause problems duringfilming of scenes, due to varying brightness, quality and hue of themixed colors, and can and often do result in uneven capturing andreproducing of colors on digital cameras, and on output media.

As is readily apparent, needs exist to address the problems thatcurrently exist with mixing of and controlling artificial light sources;and controlling color output from digital cameras as well asconventional film camera that record images illuminated by artificiallight sources.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

The systems and processes according to the present disclosure arereferred to as compensated color mixing, and overcome the abovedescribed drawbacks of known artificial light mixing and lightcorrection systems and processes by maintaining the intensity orbrightness level of light produced from mixing of light from differentsources, producing high quality blended white light,saturating/desaturating a predetermined or base light, regardless ofwhether the base light is a primary color or a mixed color. In general,the presently disclosed systems and processes achieve these results bygradually lowering the intensity of/power to the source of the originalor base color while increasing the intensity of/power to the source ofthe second color. Once the desired, mixed color has been established orset, the resulting, mixed light can be dimmed or made brighter withoutchanging the color, that is, without changing the hue. These compensatedcolor mixing processes work for color-mixing, blending of white colorsand for saturating/desaturating colored light regardless of whether thebase color is primary or mixed.

In general, camera calibration is an important aspect of the presentlydescribed systems and processes, with exemplary embodiments set forthbelow. Camera calibration data are collected from the publishedspecifications of the camera's sensor(s), from real-world testing and/orfrom data provided by the digital imaging technician (DIT). Thesecollected data are then typically stored in non-volatile memory in anelectronic control circuit and are then used in an algorithm thatenables adjustment of or changes in the intensity of light produced byeach of the red, green, and blue color channels, along with anyadditional provided colors, such as amber or white, in order to providecolor accuracy for the desired subject or application under variouslighting conditions. Then, once the intensity of each of the chosencolors has been set and when capturing the image, the DIT need onlychoose the desired calibration setting on each multicolored lightsource. In this process, the algorithms that control, change ormanipulate the intensities of the constituent colors in a conventional,multicolor LED-based or other type of luminaire will cause colors suitedto a particular camera's sensors and settings to be produced.

Embodiments, examples, features, aspects, and advantages of the presentdisclosure will become better understood with regard to the followingdescription, appended claims and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and the attendant aspects of the presentdisclosure will become more readily appreciated by reference to thefollowing detailed description, when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic overview of a conventional LED lighting system;

FIG. 2 is a top, front surface view of a conventional Red, Green, Blue,Amber (RGBA) LED lighting panel;

FIG. 3 is a top, front surface view of a conventional white LED panelhaving two types of phosphor-white LED light sources;

FIG. 4 is top, front perspective view of a conventional lighting consolefor the conventional 8-bit DMX512 standard digital data transmissionprotocol;

FIG. 5 is a top, rear perspective view of the FIG. 4 console;

FIG. 6A is a top, first end perspective view of a conventional 8-bitDMX512 controller showing DMX512 input and output ports, DIP switchesand the top of a PCB terminal block, and with the controller containinga DMX512 decoding module and a lighting control (dimmer) module;

FIG. 6B is a top, second end perspective view of the FIG. 6A controllershowing the ports of the PCB terminal block;

FIG. 7 is a top, perspective view of an conventional power supply thatmay be used to provide DC voltage to the FIGS. 6A and 6B controller;

FIG. 8 is a schematic overview of a preferred embodiment of the presentsystem;

FIG. 9 is a top, front surface view of a preferred embodiment LEDlighting panel of the present system that includes Red, Green, Blue,Amber (RGBA) and two types of phosphor-white LED light sources;

FIG. 10 is an enlarged, cut-out view of a part of the FIG. 9 embodiment,showing details of the LEDs, resistors and connections from thecontroller to the lighting panel;

FIG. 11A is a front, perspective view of a preferred user interfaceembodiment for use in the preferred embodiment of the presentlydisclosed system and process;

FIG. 11B is a rear, perspective view of the FIG. 11A controller;

FIG. 11C is top perspective view of the FIG. 11A interface;

FIG. 11D is a schematic view of a preferred microprocessor configuredfor use in the presently disclosed system and process;

FIG. 11E is a circuit diagram for the potentiometers of the preferredembodiment;

FIG. 11F is a circuit diagram for a preferred power switch of thepreferred embodiment;

FIG. 11G is a circuit diagram for the circuits associated with thedisplay buttons of the preferred embodiment;

FIG. 11H is a circuit diagram for an exemplary, preferred transceivercircuit of the preferred embodiment;

FIG. 12A is a front, top perspective view of a preferred dimmer unit foruse in the present system and process;

FIG. 12B is back or underside, perspective view of the FIG. 12A dimmerunit;

FIG. 12C is a circuit diagram for a preferred dimmer unit transceivercircuit for use in the present system and process;

FIG. 12D is a circuit diagram for a preferred dimmer unitmicrocontroller and circuit for use in the present system and process;

FIG. 12E is an exemplary, preferred circuit diagram for a MOSFET drivercircuit for use in the present system and process;

FIG. 12F is an exemplary, preferred light output circuit for use in thepresent system and process;

FIG. 13 is a schematic diagram of the major components of a conventionallighting system;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of the presentsystem for use in the present process;

FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing a preferred, exemplary algorithm thatenables color mixing and brightness compensation for two colors in thepreferred embodiment;

FIG. 16 is an exemplary schematic diagram showing current control forcolor mixing and brightness compensation for two colors in the preferredembodiment;

FIG. 17 is an exemplary schematic diagram showing a conventional pulsewidth modulation (PWM) control process for color mixing and brightnesscompensation for two colors in the preferred embodiment;

FIG. 18A is a flow chart showing a first part of a preferred, exemplaryalgorithm that enables color mixing, color brightness compensation anddesaturation for six colors;

FIG. 18B is the second, continuing part of the FIG. 18A flow chart;

FIG. 18C is the third, continuing part of the FIGS. 18A and 18B flowcharts;

FIG. 18D is the fourth, continuing part of the FIGS. 18A, 18B and 18Cflow charts;

FIG. 19 is an exemplary schematic diagram showing current control forcolor mixing, brightness compensation and desaturation for six colors;

FIG. 20 is an exemplary schematic diagram showing a PWM control processfor color mixing, brightness compensation and desaturation for sixcolors;

FIG. 21 is an exemplary schematic diagram showing current control forcolor mixing, brightness compensation and desaturation for n colors;and,

FIG. 22 is exemplary schematic diagram showing a PWM control process forcolor mixing, brightness compensation and desaturation for n colors.

Reference numerals, symbols or names are used in the figures to indicatecertain components, aspects or features shown therein. Reference symbolscommon to more than one figure indicate like components, aspects orfeatures shown therein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to FIG. 1, a conventional camera and lighting system 20includes a user 22, who alternatively and conventionally may be referredto as the filmmaker or cinematographer even though present technologytypically uses electronic media for recording and storing images ratherthan using film. User 22 operates, as shown by arrow 24, a console 26,which may be a conventional 8-bit DMX console, such as a DMX-IT 512brand console, as shown in FIGS. 4-5. This console includesfunctionality that enables both conventional lighting systems and thepresently described, inventive systems and processes. Alternatively, aconventional laptop or desktop computer having a conventional operatingsystem, and a conventional lighting control application may be used forboth conventional and the presently described inventive lightingsystems. For example, the conventional FreeStyler DMX™ brand software,which is Windows®-based DMX-512 lighting control software for a PC, issuch an application, and is essentially a virtual DMX console. Console26 connects, as shown by arrow 28, to a controller 34, which may be aconventional 8-bit DMX512 controller. Conventional power supply 30 alsoconnects, as shown by arrow 32 to controller 34. Conventional LED lightpanel 38 is driven or powered by controller 34, through conventionalinput leads 36 (shown as an arrow). Light panel 38 emits LED-sourcedlight 40 and illuminates object(s) or person(s)/people 42 in real-time.Light 44 reflected from the object(s) or people 42 is captured andinitially processed by conventional camera 46, which may be a filmcamera or a digital camera. Initially processed and recordedconventional image data 48 is then displayed on a conventional display50, which may be a computer monitor, television monitor or reflectivescreen. Display 50 projects virtual image(s) 52 of the real-timeobject(s) or people 42, as shown by arrows 54 for viewing by humanviewer 56. As will be appreciated by those skilled in this field, onegoal of conventional lighting systems is to have the colors of thevirtual image(s) 52 as seen by viewer 56 appear to be the same colors asa human viewer 56 would see the real-time object(s)/person(s) 42 undernatural lighting conditions. As will also be appreciated by thoseskilled in this field, the presently described systems and processesaddress known problems with conventional lighting systems and processes,and enable greatly improved capability for the colors of such virtualimage(s) 52 to accurately correspond to the actual colors of thereal-time object(s)/person(s) 42 when illuminated under natural lightingconditions.

With reference to FIG. 2, conventional light panel 38 includes aplurality of 5050 RGBA LEDs 58, 58, 58, etc., and a plurality ofresistors 60, 60, 60, etc., connected in a conventional circuit, as iswell known. Conventional positive and negative input leads 36 providepower from an LED controller (shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B).

FIG. 3 illustrates a conventional, hybrid white, or bi-color light panel62, that includes only white light emitting diodes. Some of the LEDs,identified as 64, 64, 64, etc., emit “warm” white light and some of theLEDS, identified as 66, 66, 66, etc., emit “cool” white light, as iswell understood by those skilled in this field. Panel 62 also includesresistors 68, 68, 68, etc., and positive and negative input leads 70that provide power from an LED controller, such as shown in FIGS. 6A and6B.

FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate a conventional 8-bit DMX console 72, whichcorresponds to console 26 in FIG. 1, and which generates signals inaccordance with conventional 8-bit DMX protocol. Such consoles and theDMX protocol are commonly used in the entertainment, television andmotion picture industries. A conventional DMX console and DMX protocolalso may be used in the presently described systems and processes. Acurrently used, well-known conventional 8-bit protocol is the DMX512protocol, also referred to as the DMX512 1990 protocol, with aconventional 8-bit DMX console, as illustrated in FIGS. 4-5. As is alsowell known, the DMX512 protocol has a particular set of parameters, with512 channels maximum, each channel transmitting 8-bit data, meaning thata maximum of 256 steps per channel (steps numbered 0-255) are available.Depending on different design parameters, each channel may refer to orcontrol different, predesignated functions. For example, each channelmay refer to, or control a circuit that in turn controls an LED or a setof LEDs of a particular, predetermined color, such as red, green, blue,white, or, in some instances, other colors such as amber. The number ofsuch steps in conventional lighting systems typically refers toresolution, or the number of increments of power, or current that may besupplied to each channel to control the intensity of a single LED or agroup of like LEDs (such as R, G, B, A or W). In some conventionalsystems, the channels may be used to control uncompensated hue,saturation, intensity and conventional desaturation. Also, and forexample, when a channel controls the color of a single LED or group ofLEDs emitting the same color, then, typically the “0” step refers tozero power, i.e., that the LED has no input power and is therefore“off.” Typically, step or “setting” “255” refers to the maximum currentor power supplied to a particular color of LED(s). In the description ofpreferred embodiments herein, a nominal 1 W is used as full power inexamples, but other values of maximum power to a particular circuit orto particular LED(s) may be used, as will be appreciated by thoseskilled in this field.

Again referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, DMX console 72 includes a mastercontrol slide switch 74 and twelve channel slide switches 76, 78, 80,82, 84, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94, 96 and 98. These slide switches are alsocommonly referred to as “faders”. Side rails or handles 100, 102primarily function as guards to prevent accidental knocking and movingany of the slide switches, and also function as handles for picking upthe console. Each of channel slide switches corresponds to and control aDMX channel in 256 steps, i.e., steps 0 to 255, for a total of 256steps. Referring to channel slide switch 76, the bottom of the slide,shown at 104, corresponds to the value 0 or the 0 step. At the oppositeend of the slide, shown at 106, when the channel slide switch is at thisposition, the corresponding value is 256, or full or maximum value.Depending on how the associated software or firmware is coded, thefunctionality of what each channel slide switch controls will vary,which type of coding and how they operate are known to those skilled inthis field. For example, for a conventional LED DMX controller and theFIG. 4 console, channel slide switch 76 could control the intensity of ared LED, and the value of 0 could mean that the intensity of the red LEDis 0, that is, the LED is “off” or without any power. When the channelswitch 76 is at the top of the slide, that is, at value 255, the red LEDwould be on and at maximum power, brightness or intensity. In otherapplications or embodiments, instead of the 256 values corresponding tointensity of a single LED, the controller could employ a method of colorcontrol that is referred to as HSI (hue, saturation, intensity) control.In such an embodiment, the value 0 could mean that the hue or coloroutput from an LED lighting panel would be red, a value of 255 couldmean that the hue or color output from the LED lighting panel would beblue, a value of 12 could mean that the hue/color output would be green,a value of 80 could mean that the hue/color output is yellow, etc. Inthe same embodiment, a value of 128 on a slide switch could mean 50%saturation while a value of 64 could mean 25% saturation, and so on. Inother embodiments, depending on the functionality of the DMX controller,the value/position of a console channel slide switch may have one ofother, different meanings.

Console 72 also has conventional “bump” buttons, two of which are shownat 108, 110. Operation of bump buttons is well known to those skilled inthis field. In general, bump buttons function, when pressed, to increasethe value to 100% from whatever the current or set value is at the timethe bump button is pushed. For example if a channel slide switch, suchas switch 76 was set at 50% of its maximum value and the bump button 108was pushed then the value of whatever was controlled by switch 76 wouldincrease from 50% to 100%. Console 72 also includes a power on/offindicator light 112.

One end of the console 72 includes several connectors and switches;including the DMX signal output connector 114, power connector 116,power switch 118 and dual-in-line (dip) switches, shown at 120. The DMXoutput connector 114 is preferably a conventional 5-pin XLR, panelmount, female connector, with a conventional locking tab mechanism (notnumbered). DMX signals output from the console 72 are sent from theconnector 114 of the DMX console to the downstream DMX controller. DCpower input, barrel connector 116, and on/off switch 118 are also shownin FIG. 5. The console 72 may also be provided with an internal batterypower supply. The dip switches 120 function to permit setting thestarting addresses of each of the channel slide switches or faders. Aswill be appreciated by those skilled in this field, due to the number ofslide switches being twelve as shown on console 72, a user would haveaccess to only twelve channels at one time, even though a total of 512channels are available. In actual use, while 512 channels of controlsignaling are available to control a lighting fixture, typically arelatively small number of controls, such as 15-16 DMX channels perfixture are needed or actually used to control a lighting fixture orgroup of fixtures. For example, for a fixture configured not only toemit light, but also to have motion and animation capabilities, theremay be 15 channels used to control various aspects of that fixture. Insuch an example, fader 76 might control the hue/color of the lightemitted from the fixture, fader 78 might control theintensity/brightness of the light, fader 80 might control the pan of thefixture, fader 82 might control the tilt of the fixture, etc., up to anynumber of parameters. Setting the start address enables effectivecommunication between the controller and the fixture, in other words,effectively controlling the signaling for different aspects of theoperation of the fixture so that the signals are the same type ofsignaling (same wavelength, frequency, etc.) and the devices actuallycommunicate with each other, analogous to each speaking to the other inthe same language.

Again referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, a preferred DMX console 72, whichcorresponds to console 26 from FIG. 1, is commercially available from“Integrated Controls, Inc.” as its stand-alone, model DMX-IT 512controller. For use in the presently disclosed inventions, 4 addressespreferably are used to control 5 or 6 channels in the processesdisclosed herein. In the case of use of 5 channels, one channel each topower red, green and blue LEDs, and two channels to power differentKelvin temperature white LEDs are used. As will be appreciated by thosewho are skilled in this field other conventional, stand-alone consoleshaving varying types of functionality may be used with DMX, or otherprotocols. Also, as will be appreciated by those skilled in this field,the DMX protocol and as well as other protocols may be implemented onsoftware that can be operated from conventional computing devices suchas desktops, PCs, Apple brand computers, etc., to enable the presentlydescribed processes. For example, the presently preferred communicationprotocol is a 16-bit protocol, provided as Appendix 1 herein. Otherprotocols can be created, and other known protocols can be used in thepresent system and processes, and creation and used of such protocols iswithin the skill of those skilled in this field. Also, for example, in asimple system according to the principles of this disclosure, a useableprotocol could be as simple as a control circuit having fourconventional variable resistors with an analog signal to a conventionalcontroller for a luminaire. As shown in FIG. 4, the DMX-IT 512 consoleincludes 12 “faders”, meaning that this console can control up to 12channels of DMX at one time, with values from 0 to 255 for power to eachof the channels. The console also includes a master control capability.

Referring to FIGS. 6A and 6B, the exemplary controller 122 correspondsto the controller 34 of FIG. 1. DMX signaling input connection 124receives, via a conventional Ethernet cable (not shown) DMX signals fromthe DMX output 114 from DMX console 72 as shown in FIG. 5. Theconnection 124 is configured to receive a conventional RJ45 connectorthat is also commonly used for Ethernet cables and Ethernet protocol.Conventional CAT5, CAT5E and CAT6 Ethernet cables are typically used forthis type of DMX controller. DMX output connection 126 is also shown inFIG. 6A. DMX output signals are sent from output connection 126 todownstream devices within an overall lighting system. Controller 122also has a set of dip switches 128. The dip switches 128 are used tocorrelate the channel set-up in the console 72 with the channel set-upin each of the controllers, one of which is shown as controller 122 inFIGS. 6A and 6B. In a relatively small lighting system, for example,only a single controller would be used, and only a few channels would beused out of the total 512 available channels. In relatively largelighting systems there may be several controllers scattered throughoutthe movie set, with each controller having one or more lighting fixturesconnected to it. In those relatively large lighting systems, the dipswitches 128 are used to set up or coordinate communications among theconsole, controllers and lighting fixtures so that all the lights areproperly controlled. For example, when it is desired that apredesignated number of like lighting fixtures are intended to performthe same function, then the controllers for all those lights will be setto have the same start address. In such an example, for a group oflighting fixtures controlled by the FIGS. 6A, 6B controller 122 andcontroller 122 having a starting address of 256 set on the dip switches,then all of those lighting fixtures would function in unison uponreceipt of a corresponding DMX signal, such that all of those fixtureswould increase intensity at the same rate and to the same level ofintensity. In another example, if a DMX controller such as controller122 was controlling an RGB LED; one channel would be assigned to controleach of red, green and blue, for a total of three channels, such aschannel setting 254, 255 and 256. The starting address for the nextdevice would then be set to address 257. In this example, if the nextdevice is a conventional hybrid, or bi-color white light panel, thenthat DMX controller would use two channels, one for the cool white LEDand one for the warm LED, and the starting addresses would be 257 and258, respectively.

Also shown in FIG. 6B, controller 122 has a ten-position conventionalblock connector 130, sometimes referred to as a “Phoenix” connector. Theten positions are shown at 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148and 150. The various positions of a block connector can be used forvarious functions, depending on the manufacturer, model and how it isconfigured. In an exemplary lighting control system, using the FIGS. 6Aand 6B embodiment connector 122, positions 132 and 134 are for negativeDC power in; positions 136 and 138 are for positive DC power in, and inthis embodiment also function as the positive output for the LEDs,because the positive DC power in and positive output for the LEDs can beshared considering the fact that the circuitry responsible for the LEDdimming on this particular controller is placed on each of the dedicatednegative outputs 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, and 150 and not on thepositive output(s). Also, positions 140 (red), 142 (green), 144 (blue),146 (amber), 148 (tungsten) and 150 (daylight) would be outputs to theLEDs. In this exemplary embodiment, the fixtures use a common positive(anode), so that positions 136 and 138 function as double positiveoutputs for the LEDs. In this exemplary system, positions 140 (red), 142(green), 144 (blue), 148 (tungsten or “warm” white) and 150 (daylight or“cool” white) would be LED outputs, because a common cathode (commonnegative) system is not used. Rather, the exemplary system is a commonanode (common positive) system, so that power is sent though one of thenegative leads to complete the circuit and power “on” all of the LEDs onthat panel. The block 130 is attached to the controller and theconnections are made secure by set screws, collectively identified byarrow 152. An example of such a controller 122 is a LiteGear™ brand DMX6×6-V2 controller, also referred to as a 6×6-V2 that is presentlycommercially available and may be used in the conventional system, suchas conventional system 20 from FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 7, conventional power supply 154 includes aconventional connector, or plug 156, (which may be a NEMA 5-15P AC inputconnector), housing 158, DC positive output lead 160 and DC negativeoutput lead 162. The power supply 154 corresponds to power supply 30 asshown in FIG. 1, and converts line voltage AC to 12, 24, 48 or othervolts DC. In the exemplary embodiment, positive lead 160 would beconnected to block 122 (FIG. 6B) at 136 and/or 138, and negative lead162 would be connected to controller block 122 at 132 and/or 134.

Referring to FIGS. 2, 3, 6A and 6B, the DC power leads 36 of FIG. 2and/or 70 of FIG. 3 would be, for example, connected to terminal block130 of controller 122 as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B. More specifically,the negative leads from the FIG. 2 leads 36 from the lighting panel RGBALEDs would be connected at 140, 142, 144 and 146. The negative leads ofthe leads 70 from the FIG. 3 panel hybrid white LEDs would be connectedat 148 (warm) and 150 (cool). The positive leads from leads 36 and 70would be paralleled with each other and with the power supply and beconnected at 136 and/or 138.

With reference to FIG. 8, a block diagram of components of an embodimentof the presently described lighting control system is shown. User 166,corresponding to user 22 as shown in FIG. 1, operates (as shown witharrow 168) a user interface 170 of the present system, as shown anddescribed in greater detail with respect to FIGS. 11A-11H. In general,the user 166 operates the interface 170 via onboard encoders, buttons,dials and/or switches. In other embodiments, a DMX console, such asconsole 72 from FIGS. 4 and 5 may be used in between user 166 and userinterface 170. Interface 170 generates signals, as shown by arrow 172,via a four-wire connection, preferably including a serial data pair, apositive DC power wire and a negative DC power wire. User interface 170includes some of the functionality provided by console 26, power supply30 and controller 34 as shown in FIG. 1 for a conventional lightingsystem, but with significant differences. The presently disclosed,exemplary user interface 170 and lighting panel control unit (dimmerunit) 174, combine functionality similar to that of conventionalcontroller 122 and power supply 154 of FIGS. 6A, 6B and 7. Dimmer unit174 receives serial data and DC power, shown by arrow 172 from the userinterface 170, decodes the data, converts the data into PWM values, suchas for example six PWM values for a 6-color system, and then sends thePWM values to a lighting panel, such as LED light panel 178. Asdescribed in detail below, the number of PWM values will depend on thecomplexity of the lighting system and the number of different colors ofLEDs used in a particular lighting system. As will be understood bythose skilled in this field, while the conventional console andcontrollers illustrated herein can use 8-bit DMX protocol and DMXsignaling, other types of signaling and other protocols may be used,with the presently described 16-bit protocol preferred.

Referring to FIGS. 8, 9, and 10, six-color lighting panel 178 includesred, green, blue, amber, warm white (tungsten) and cool white (daylight)LED light sources. Lighting panel 178 combines the LEDs of the FIG. 2lighting panel and the LEDs of the FIG. 3 lighting panel into a singlepanel. Light emitted from panel 178 illuminates the objects or persons180 in real time, much like the light emitted from panel 38 shown inFIG. 1 illuminates the objects and persons shown in FIG. 1 in real time.Light 184, reflected from the objects and/or persons 182 is thencaptured by camera 186. Camera 186 processes the reflected light andsends corresponding data signals 188 to monitor 190, where virtualimages 192 corresponding to the real objects or persons 182 aredisplayed.

Combining the LEDS of the conventional FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 panels onto asingle panel 178 provides advantages not inherent in or possible fromuse of the separate FIGS. 2 and 3 panels. For instance, panel 178provides for equal spacing between and among like LED emitters, which inturn provides for significant improvement and advantages in certain usesituations. In panel 178 the RGBA emitters and the two types of whiteemitters are evenly spaced with respect to each same type of emitter.This even spacing provides for uniform light distribution, and,importantly, eliminates a problem with conventional LED lighting systemsthat is well known in this field, and referred to as light “banding”.Elimination of the banding problem means that in a particular lightedscene, should a reflection be created, the reflection would be an evenreflection, and would not exhibit bands of different colors/intensities.Reflections are very important in this field, especially when close-upphotography is used or needed, such as when it is desired to show areflection in a person's eyes. In conventional lighting systems, thisbanding problem is typically addressed by use of diffusion. Diffusionrefers to the use of textile or plastic panel(s), having any of severaldegrees of opaqueness that function to diffuse the light, that is, tomake the output light appear to be evenly blended and be of uniformcolor, consistency and intensity. In the present lighting systems, aneven, symmetrical physical distribution of the constituent LEDs enablesan even distribution of light output when the panel is energized, andthus eliminates the need for diffusion, although diffusion may still beused for certain applications as known to those skilled in this field.

Referring to FIG. 9, panel 178 includes LEDs 198, 198, 198, etc., shownas the right-most emitter in an emitter grouping. LEDs 198 may be 5050RGBA LEDs, and are also referred to as RGBA diodes. LEDs 200, 200, 200,etc., shown as positioned in the middle of each grouping, may be warmwhite (tungsten) diodes. LEDs 202, 202, 202, etc., shown on the left ineach grouping, may be cool white (daylight or phosphor) diodes. Panel178 also includes resistors 206, 206, 206, etc., shown with eachresistor in series with three diodes. While the diodes are spacedrelatively close together, the resistors are spaced relatively far apartdue to the relatively high current loading for the panel (approximately200 watts for a two-foot square area) and the need to have sufficientspace/material in which the heat generated during use can be dissipated.Panel 178 also includes solder pads 204 where the input leads 176 areattached. In the FIG. 9 exemplary embodiment, twelve conductors areused, with six positive leads and six negative leads. Preferably, at thecontroller end the six positive leads would be connected in common (inparallel), while at the panel end six separate leads are shown forincreased flexibility in design and manufacture of the panels.Preferably, the six negative leads would be separate connections, withone connection for each of the six colors (red, green, blue, amber andtwo whites). The LEDs shown in FIG. 9 are the same type of LEDs shown inFIGS. 2-3, with, for example, LED 198 corresponding to LED 58 in FIG. 2(5050 RGBA LED or RGBA diode).

FIG. 10 is an enlarged cut-out view of the connector end of panel 178,showing the 5050 RGBA diodes 198, solder pads 204, resistors 206, inputleads 176, “5630” warm white (Tungsten) diodes 200, and “5630” cool(daylight) diodes 202.

Referring to FIGS. 11A, 11B, 11C, 11D, 11E, 11F, 11G and 11H, details ofthe components of a user interface, such as shown as interface 170 inFIGS. 8 and 14 are shown. In FIG. 11A an exemplary, preferred userinterface 208 is shown enclosed in housing 209, having a front face 211and several internal circuits. Interface 208 includes a three positionpower on/off switch 210 and rotary control dials at 212, 214, 216 and218 for controlling each of four potentiometers mounted within thehousing 209, as shown in FIG. 11C. Switch 210 is the main power on/offswitch for the user interface 208. An internal, integrated power supply(not shown, but similar to FIG. 7 power supply 154) provides power tothe user interface 208 and to the dimmer unit 174, as described below.The integrated power supply corresponds to power supply 30 as shown inFIG. 1, which corresponds to power supply 154 as shown in FIG. 7. Userinterface 208 combines some of the functions of DMX controller 34 andpower supply 30 from FIG. 1. This power supply provides DC voltage forthe control circuitry, which preferably would be at 5 volts DC, althoughother voltages could be used. Interface 208 also includes display 220that is preferably a graphical OLED type display. Other types of screendisplays, such as LCD, LED, etc., could be used and other types ofcontrol actuators could be used, so long as they function for theirintended purpose(s). The interface also includes conventional mountingholes, not numbered, and three push buttons 222, 224 and 226 positionedon the top surface of the housing 209, adjacent the display 220, andthat function to control the information displayed and to adjustsettings. Display 220 provides several functions, including providing agraphical interface to adjust settings, to provide feedback informationfor the tactile control of the potentiometers, i.e., information aboutthe current state of the hue, saturation, Kelvin values and intensitycontrolled by dials 212, 214, 216 and 218. Optionally, this informationcan be displayed on the screen for each value separately, or for all ofthe values simultaneously. Also, the information could be displayedduring and/or immediately after a change is made to any of the values,such that the value(s) would be emphasized on the screen by enlargingthe value(s), or displaying the changed value(s) to take up the entirescreen view for a short period, so that during the changing of anyvalue, identification and control would be easier. Modification of thecontrol and display circuitry to provide such display variations iswithin the skill of a person of ordinary skill in this field. Thebuttons 222, 224 and 226 preferably would be conventional push buttonsthat could function in any of a number of ways, such as a simple on/offbutton, or for incrementally changing or advancing values and navigatingthrough display options. For example, one of the buttons could be usedto select the camera type by scrolling through several options fordifferent cameras and the selection of a particular camera would thenenable certain, predesignated values to be used by the system whenmaking color adjustments. Another of the buttons could be used toconfirm and set the selection, and another button could be used torevert back to the main screen from the camera select screen.

Referring to FIG. 11B, a rear view of user interface 208 is shown withrear or back face 219 and four panel-mounted connectors 228, 230, 231and 232. Connectors 228 and 230 are mates, with 228 being a male, 5-pinXLR input connector and 228 a female, 5-pin XLR output connector, whichare used and referred to as DMX connectors in this field. In practicethese connectors are in parallel, so that either connector could be usedfor input or output, and in the preferred embodiment one of theconnectors is used and it is used for input for DMX protocol or otherprotocol signaling. Connector 232 is a 7-pin connector, referred to as apowerline 7 connector, sometimes referred in abbreviated form as a PL 7panel-mount female connector. In the PL 7 connector, preferably 3 pinswould be used for sending data signals (data plus, data minus andground) and 4 pins would be used for DC voltage (2 pins for DC voltageplus and 2 pins for DC voltage minus). Connector 231 is the powerconnector. As will be appreciated by those skilled in this field, thenumber and size/capacity of the pins can vary, so long as enough pins ofsufficient capacity to safely handle the current demands of the circuitare used.

Referring to FIG. 11C, a top perspective view of the circuit 234 andprinted circuit board 236 of user interface 208 is shown. The circuitincludes power switch 238 that corresponds to reference numeral 210 inFIG. 11A. Switch 238 is a 3-position rocker switch, with each positionmaking contact at a different point, such as NKK rocker switchM2T13X001. In the present, exemplary embodiment, the switch isconfigured to function simply as an on/off power switch. Flipping theswitch to “on” causes DC voltage from a power supply located elsewherein the body of the user interface 208 (FIG. 11A) to enter throughconnector 240, such as Phoenix Contact fixed terminal block 5442565,where it would be stepped down, from e.g., 48 volts DC to whatevervoltage is needed or designed to run the circuit, such as 12 volts or 5volts DC. Conventional potentiometers 242 (hue), 244 (saturation), 246(CCT) and 248 (overall intensity), such as ALPS RK097111T065potentiometers, correspond to and are controlled by rotary dials 212,214, 216, and 218, respectively, as shown in FIG. 11A. The signalsgenerated by these potentiometers are converted into data streams bymicroprocessor/microcontroller 250, which is positioned on the oppositeor bottom of the printed circuit board 236. Conventional power bufferingand noise filtering components, such as capacitors are shown but notnumbered on FIG. 11C. Microcontroller 250 receives the signals from thepotentiometers and together with RS485 transceiver 252 converts thesesignals into a useable stream of serial data signals. The convertedserial data stream is then sent through the output connector 254 shownin FIG. 11C and output connector 232 as shown on FIG. 11B.

Referring to FIG. 11D, a preferred microprocessor, or dimmer controlprocessor 254 (U1) is shown with reference numbers keyed to the presentdescription of the system and with retaining alphanumeric signs from themanufacturer of the exemplary, commercially available microprocessorPIC18F46K22. The pin connections for potentiometers 256, 258, 260 and262 (FIG. 11C), respectively are shown in the upper left area of FIG.11D, and the processor 254 controls the resistance so that in thisembodiment the voltage is maintained between 0 volts and 5 volts DC.Each potentiometer is a simple divider circuit with a center wiper, suchthat turning the control dials 212, 214, 216 and/or 218 (FIG. 11A),respectively, changes the resistance within the voltage range of 0 to 5volts in 1,023 steps or increments (in an 10-bit system). In themicroprocessor 254, the corresponding microcircuits areanalog-to-digital converters that convert the voltage into digitalvalues that are then used by the software to conform the output digitaldata signals. Reset pin 264 functions to reset the LCD display, which isconnected to the device at the pins that are used to display images onthe device, including serial data clock pin 266 (SCK), serial data inpin 268 (SDI), serial data out pin 270 (SDO) and chip select pin 272(sCS). Pin 276 (CLK1) is for the clock oscillator, which controls thefrequency of the dimmer circuit to a very high degree of accuracy. Pin274 is for monitoring the board temperature (Temp) and pin 278 (CLF) isthe current limit flag that flags or tells the software to turn “off”the PWM outputs upon an over high current condition. Pins 280 and 282(corresponding to switch 210 of FIG. 11A), 284 (corresponding to theprogramming switch 213 on FIG. 11A) and 286 (corresponding to 3.5 mmtip-ring-sleeve [TRS] input 217 shown on FIG. 11A, and is one of the twopins used for connecting to a remote input) are all external switchesrelating other controls for the device, such as the toggle switch,option select switch and trigger switches (remote trigger switch, inputjack 217, such as would be connected to a conventional ⅛-inch 3.5 mm TRSconnector, shown on FIG. 11A, and local trigger switch 213, andprogramming, push button 215 as also shown in FIG. 11A) that worktogether and are used to connect to a remote input (pins 286 and 288).In an exemplary embodiment, pins 288 and 286 work together with theremote control button switch. In an exemplary embodiment, the TRIG andENT switches/pins 286, 288, respectively, work together to cause achange of state, such as a change from “HI” to “LOW”. For example, alight could be made to turn “on” in response to the “HI” state and toturn “off” in response to the “LOW” state. Their functionality can beseparated, as will be understood by one skilled in this field, becausefor example, in use as a remote camera shutter, which typically has twoswitches and a single, two-position button, these switches can be usedto simply turn the shutter to “on” or “off” or “open” or “shut”. Thethree push buttons 222, 224 and 226 on the display of FIG. 11Acorrespond to pins 290, 292 and 294 on the microprocessor. Referring tothe follow pin 296, it could be programmed to provide, for example, 0 to5 volts to, in turn, produce values 0 to 1023 (in an 10-bit system),that would represent some condition or thing that the light follows,such as music, or some other sound, or another light, how wet somethingis, etc. In other words, the follow pin is for special effects purposesand follows the course of or follows something else as that somethingelse changes over time. Pin 304 is an enable pin that changes thefunction of the RS485 transceiver from a transmit state to a receivestate. Tx pin 305 and Rx pin 306 are connected to RS485 and are used totransmit signals among the DMX controller, or other protocol controllerand the light fixtures. For example, the signals transmitted andreceived could correspond to the net values of the light output, so thatthe microprocessor can make determinations such as whether a specificfixture is connected or not connected, current temperature, currentspeed, etc., as related to any specific fixture. Pins 308 and 310 areassociated with local MOSFET drive control, and are analog voltageoutputs that represent how much current is flowing through a (currentsense) circuit. Pin 312 (Volts) is associated with another voltagedivider circuit and indicates the current, external voltage drives theuser interface. Pin 314 (Term_SS) controls the termination connection ofthe RS45 transceiver, and in some protocols, may be used as the head ormaster control. In an exemplary embodiment, state switch pin 303 isassociated with the analog voltage that is controlled by a 3-positionswitch that may be used for a number of reasons, such as changing dimmermodes, for example. At pin 290 a 10 k pull-up resistor 291 is connectedto the circuit and functions to ensure that in its normal state, pin 290stays in a high state of 5 volts so that when a switch is pressed, thevoltage goes from 5 volts to 0 volt. That pin 290 is connected to themicroprocessor reset circuitry, and if pressed accidentally, themicroprocessor can be reset. Also shown connected to the microprocessorcircuit is noise filter circuit 316, using a 100 μF capacitor, alsoreferred to as a bypass capacitor and which also functions to keep theincoming voltage to the microprocessor to be DC voltage.

Referring to FIG. 11E, circuits for the four potentiometers are shown.Circuit 318 for potentiometer 1 (Pot 1), 320 for Pot 2, 322 for Pot 3and 324 for Pot 4. These circuits correspond to the signals or pins 256,258, 260 and 262 shown in FIG. 11D, to the physical potentiometers 242,244, 246 and 248 shown in FIG. 11C and to the control dials 212, 214,216 and 218 shown in FIG. 11A. Each of these four potentiometer circuitspreferably have the same components, and control current in a similarway, but differ in what parameter(s) they control, as apparent from thedescription herein. Thus, the components of circuit 318 will bedescribed, and such description will apply to the other threepotentiometer circuits 320, 322 and 324, as will be understood by thoseskilled in this field. The label “ADCON0” 326 refers to and means thatthe circuit includes an analog to digital converter and the last digitsrefer to the four potentiometers numbered “0”, “1”, “2” and “3”.Referring to circuit 318, the circuit includes RV1 at 328, digitalsignal out indicated at 330, connection to ground 332, wiper resister334 variable from 0 to 10 k Ohms and its wiper 336, 1 k Ohm resistor R1at 338, output signal connection 342 to the Pot 1 pin 256 on themicroprocessor 254 shown on FIG. 11D, and 1 μF, 16v X7R bypass capacitorC1 at 340. Each of these circuits controls the speed at which theanalog-digital conversion takes place, the resolution, and alignmentleft or right, as will be appreciated by those skilled in this field.

Referring to FIG. 11F, the circuitry for an exemplary power switch, ormultiple state or multiple input switch 210 of FIG. 11A is shown as a3-position switch 350 configured for two functions or modes. In theupper left drawing the switch is shown with an arrow pointingapproximately 45-degrees up to connect to UP_Sw1 which places thecircuit in the Up Mode shown on the upper right at 364. Connection 368in the Up Mode area of FIG. 11F corresponds to SW1, which is pin 280 onFIG. 11D. Flipping switch 350 to the downward position, making contactwith the lower contact places the circuit in the Down Mode shown at 366,and connection 370 in the Down Mode area of FIG. 11F corresponds to SW2,which is pin 282 on FIG. 11D. In this embodiment, the middle position ofswitch 350 is not connected. R17, shown at 352 is a pull-up resistorthat keeps the microprocessor output (UP_Sw1) pin “HI”, unless it isconnected, which then pulls the output to “LO”. R18, shown at 354reduces the current flow through the microprocessor, as will beunderstood by those skilled in this field. A noise reduction circuit356, including capacitor C39, preferably identical to that used with thepotentiometers is also connected, and it also functions as a“debouncer,” so that during switching the microprocessor sees, that is,is exposed to only a single state change, and reacts to that statechange, rather reacting to any bounced signal(s) that might otherwise becreated. In the Down Mode circuit 366, resistors R16, shown at 358 andR15, shown at 360, and debouncer circuit 362 are shown having analogousfunctions as in circuit 364. In one exemplary system, the middleposition indicates that the circuit 210 is off in the off position, theup position places the circuit in the Up Mode and the down positionplaces the circuit in the Down Mode. For example, in the Up Mode thecircuit could be set to receive and act on input from thepotentiometers, and in the Down Mode, to receive and act on DMX input228 (or control input based on some other protocol) as shown in FIG.11B. In general, the Up Mode and Down Mode circuits permit the system toinput into the microprocessor different types of signals, and to provideinput signaling for further processing by the software implementation ofthe system. For example, in one embodiment, placing the switch 210 inthe middle position, the system could interpret the position to be the“Off Mode”, and could turn off the display, set the PWM to 0 so the thatPWM modules would be turned off, and the control commands to thefixtures would place them at 0 volts, or “off”. So, in this instance theswitch 210 would act like an “on”/“off” power switch, but would notdirectly open or close the power circuit to the fixture(s), as would beunderstood by those skilled in this field. Alternatively, the systemcould be adapted so that Up Mode would function for color compensationwith no desaturation, and so that the Down Mode would function fordesaturation with no color compensation.

Referring to FIG. 11G the circuits associated with display buttons orswitches 222, 224 and 226 (shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B) are shown andwill be described. The signals generated by these buttons are shown at378, 380 and 382 in FIG. 11G and correspond to the pins at 290, 292 and294 in FIG. 11D. All three switches are of the same construction, andonly one of the switches, Up switch 378 will be described in detail. Theup arrow is connected to Vdd at 384, the drain voltage of the circuit,which in this embodiment is 5 volts. R28, shown at 386 is a pull upresistor, and R29, shown at 388 is a current limiting resistor thatlimits the current flowing into the microprocessor, shown at 378 on FIG.11G, and which corresponds to pin 294 on FIG. 11D. The circuits 374 and376 have similar components, function in a similar way and are connectedto pins identified in FIG. 11D, as will be understood by those skilledin this field. FIG. 11G also shows connector 390, which functions as aprinted circuit board for the display components of the interface 208and provides connection to the main circuit board of the interface 208through a cable. Reset pin 392 interfaces with reset pin 264 on FIG.11D; serial data out, SDO pin 394 interfaces with SDO pin 270 on FIG.11D; serial data clock 396 interfaces with serial data clock 266 on FIG.11D; chip select 398 corresponds to chip select pin 272 on FIG. 11D.Simulation switches dSW1 at 400, dSW2 at 404 and dSW3 at 402 correspondto buttons 376, 374 and 372 shown in the upper section of FIG. 11G. Vssand Vdd refer to the source voltage and the drain voltage, that is, theplus voltage and the minus voltage in the system

Referring to FIG. 11H, the RS485 transceiver circuit 406 is shown, andfunctions to process incoming data streams and to output PMW values,plus (+) and minus (−) at outputs 416 and 418, respectively. In thepreferred embodiment shown in FIG. 11H, the out data streams are in thepreferred, 16-bit, prospective commercial embodiment of the currentsystem, tentatively intended to be marketed as LiteNet™ brand protocol,with corresponding + and − signals, as described herein, as shown inAppendix 1. As will be appreciated by those skilled in this field, theoutput signals also can be conventional 8-bit signals based onconventional DMX protocol communication, or can be in accordance withother communication protocols, as will be understood by those skilled inthis field. Transceiver U12, shown at 408, includes several connectionsor pins: RO (receive out); RE (receive enable); DE (transmit enable);and DI (transmit input). The Tx pin 410 on FIG. 11H correspondsto/connects to Tx pin 304 as shown on FIG. 11D; the EN pin 412corresponds to EN pin 304 in FIG. 11D; and, Rx pin 414 corresponds to Rxpin 306 on FIG. 11D. Pins A and B are the DMX− and DMX+ (or otherprotocol, such as the preferred 16-bit protocol) signal pins in whichthe A pin and the B pin are opposite in direction/polarity from eachother, such that when pin A is high, pin B is low, and vice versa. Forthe purpose of using DMX protocol, the enable pin is held low and itreceives DMX signals. In the case of the preferred 16-bit protocol(sometimes referred to the prospective, LiteNet™ brand protocol herein),the enable pin is preferably held high, and transmits until a codedmessage is sent to the transceiver, telling it that there is a messageto be received from the light source, such as the temperature, currentvoltage, etc. The circuit shown at 420 is a bypass capacitor circuit forthe transceiver. Transceiver 408 is a conventional, commerciallyavailable Maxim Corporation MAX487 brand transceiver shown in the FIG.11H embodiment, and which corresponds to component 252 shown in FIG.11C. Conventional transient voltage suppressor circuit 422 functionssomewhat like a Zener diode, in which the voltage on pins A and B cannotexceed a certain value that would cause damage to the transceiver, andif the voltage exceeds that predetermined value, the voltage would bedischarged to ground. R72 at 426 and R73 at 424 are each 10 Ohm, 1206size resistors, and R74 at 428 is a 120 Ohm, 1206 size terminationresistor that is connected to the negative data signals. In thepreferred 16-bit protocol of the present embodiments, the terminationresister is preferably always connected because it is the head end ofthe RS485 loop. In the FIG. 11H embodiment, the suppressor circuit 422is commercially available as a separate component, shown labeled as D14and available in different voltages such as 5 volts, 10 volts, 12 voles,etc., and here shown as a SM712 brand voltage suppressor.

Potentiometer controls shown in FIG. 11A and their associatedpotentiometers and circuits shown in FIGS. 11B-11H function to controlor change the hue (control 212), the saturation (control 214), the CCTKelvin temperature (control 216) and overall intensity (control 218) asdescribed herein. Controls 212, 214, 216 and 218 and their associatedpotentiometers control a range of values from zero to the maximum value,with the number of increments and the total value depending of thesystem design, such as an 8-bit, the presently preferred 16-bit or32-bit system protocols. For example, in the preferred, 16-bit protocolsystem, the values would range from 0 to 65,535, which in terms of hue,or a color wheel, would generate signal values from 0 degrees to 360degrees, as will be understood by those skilled in this field. Inconsidering control 212 that controls the hue, the 0 value (or 0 degree)would correspond to fully saturated red and a value near the maximumvalue of 65,535 value (or 359 degrees) would correspond to red magenta.Also, in the case of control 218 that controls intensity or brightnessof the light output, the 0 value would correspond to zero currentflowing through that part of the circuit to the LED(s) and the maximumvalue would correspond to the maximum current or power flowing throughthat part of the circuit to the LED(s), such as the nominal 1 Watt ofpower used in several examples described herein.

Control 212 and its associated potentiometer 242 functions to pick thefully saturated hue or color that is output from the lighting panel(red, green, blue and mixtures of red, green and blue as found in thecolor wheel). For example, a control 212 value of about 33% of maximum,corresponding to about 120 degrees on the color wheel, would result in agreen color or hue; and a value of about 66% or about 240 degrees wouldresult in a blue color. Increasing the control 212 value to about 359degrees would eventually result in a color that is a shade just underred. In other words, operation of control 212 would correspond topicking a color on the color wheel, so that the control 212 functionsessentially as a color picker. Control 216 and its associatedpotentiometer 246 function to pick the particular white color (cool,warm or intermediate white) in degrees Kelvin or CCT. For example, ifcontrol 216 was set to the 0 value, that would correspond to 2,660Kelvin (warm white, or Tungsten) and if set to the maximum value of thepotentiometer, then the LEDs would output 6,000 Kelvin (cool ordaylight) white light. In other words, control 216 picks the exact CCTor Kelvin color temperature of white light to be emitted from thelighting panel. Control 214 and its associated potentiometer 244function to crossfade between the chosen hue or color and the chosenwhite light, that is, to control desaturation of the chosen color interms of the chosen CCT value and the chosen amount or percentage ofwhite light in comparison to the amount of the chosen saturated color.In other words, control 214 reduces the intensity of the chosen hue orcolor as it increases the intensity of the chosen color temperature ofwhite light. The cross fade circuity can be set to reduce the intensityof the hue and increase the intensity of the chosen white at the samerate, at different rates, at a linear rate or at a non-linear rate,while maintaining the total power output of the lighting panel constant,as will be understood by those skilled in this field and as describedherein. In short, operation of controls 212, 216 and 214 results in achosen color at a chosen degree of saturation/unsaturation. Once thatchosen color at the chosen degree of saturation is produced, thencontrol 218 and its associated potentiometer control the intensity orbrightness of the light output from the lighting panel. A 0 value forcontrol 218 means that no power is supplied to the LEDs and no light isproduced. A high value, such as 100%, means that 100% of the current orpower needed to produce that color at its maximum intensity will flowthrough the circuit and through the LEDs. In other words, once aparticular color and desaturation level is chosen using controls 212,214 and 216, then the brightness of that chosen color is controlled bycontrol 218 and its associated potentiometer.

Referring to FIGS. 12A through 12F, lighting control circuit 430,commonly referred to in this field as a “dimmer circuit”, “dimmer unit”or “dimmer”, and adapted for use in the present system is shown. Dimmerunit 430 corresponds to the dimmer unit 174 shown in FIG. 8 and thedimmer unit 174 shown in FIG. 14, and is a printed circuit board. Thedimmer unit circuit board is encased within a housing (not numbered),and includes components and capabilities adapted to enable the presentlydescribed color compensation system. With reference to FIGS. 11A-11H,the output signals from the user interface 170, using the chosencommunications protocol (8-bit DMX or the preferred 16-bit LiteNet™brand protocol, for example) are the input data signals to the dimmercircuit 430. In the preferred embodiment a 16-bit protocol is preferredbecause it offers much greater resolution than an 8-bit protocol. Forexample, an 8-bit system has 2⁸ or 256 steps and a 16-bit system has 2¹⁶or 65,356 steps, or degrees of resolution. Creation and use of a 16-bitprotocol, based on the principles of an 8-bit protocol and generalknowledge in this field is within the skill of a person skilled in thisfield. From a hardware perspective, many 16-bit components arecommercially available, but at present some hardware components used inthe presently disclosed system are limited to 10-bit communications.Therefore, some of the communications in the presently preferred systemmust be converted to and use a 10-bit communications protocol due tohardware limitations, as will be appreciated by those skilled in thisfield, and could be converted to 16-bit or higher resolutioncommunication protocols, upon availability of 16-bit or higher hardwarecapability. For these reasons, while the present system preferably usesa 16-bit communication protocol, it can also use conventional 8-bit DMXprotocol-based communication, and in some aspects uses a 10-bitcommunication protocol.

The − and + data output signals as shown in FIG. 11H are transmittedpreferably by wire to, and enter the dimmer unit 430 housing through theholes 436 and 438, respectively. Holes 432 and 434 permit access for DC− DC + power, respectively, that is used to power the components in thedimmer unit, and preferably, to power the LEDs on the lighting panel178. The data and the power are transmitted on the wire that isconnected to output 232, as shown in FIG. 11B. The incoming data isprocessed by RS485 transceiver 440, and converted into a single, up ordown rolling signal data stream having its own communications protocol,as provided in Appendix 1. The data stream output from transceiver 440is then sent to microprocessors 442 and 444. These microprocessors maybe, and preferably are the same model as microprocessor 250 shown inFIG. 11C. The dimmer circuit microprocessors 442 and 444 send out PWMvalues or signals to MOSFET drivers that amplify the signals and thensend them to MOSFETs 446, 448, 450, 451, 452 and 454 as shown in FIG.12A, one MOSFET for each of the six colors. Each microprocessor controlsor is associated with processing the signaling for three colors.Therefore, with the preferred embodiment using six colors, twomicroprocessors are used, and each controls three MOSFETs.

Because the outputs of the MOSFETs are PWM values, they control theintensity of the LEDs by turning them on/off for time(s) that correspondto intensity. For example, if the control signaling commands theintensity to be 100% for a particular LED or group of LEDs, then theMOSFETs provide power 100% of the time for a given duty cycle.Similarly, if the LEDs are to be at 50% intensity, the MOSFETs wouldprovide power to the LEDs 50% of the time for a given duty cycle, andthis would result in the appearance of the LEDs operating at 50%brightness or intensity. In the present, exemplary six-color lightingsystem (R, G, B, A, cool W and warm W), six MOSFETs are used, and insystems having a different number of colors, the number of MOSFETswould, preferably, be the same number as the number of colors. Theoutput of the MOSFETs in circuit 430 is connected to a multi-positionconnector 456. The presently preferred connector 456 is a Phoenix-8brand, 8-position connector commercially available from PhoenixCorporation. Connector 456 directly interfaces with the LEDs. In thepreferred embodiment, dimmer unit 430 is attached to the back of the LEDlighting panel 178.

Referring to FIG. 12B, a perspective view of the underside or back sideof dimmer unit 430 is shown. Inputs to the MOSFET drivers are shown at458, 460, 462, 464, 466 and 468, and are described in detail withrespect to FIGS. 12E and 12F. The output connector 456, the power inputholes 432 and 434, and the + and − PWM value data signaling input andoutput holes 436 and 438 are also shown.

Referring to FIG. 12C, exemplary MOSFET driver circuit 406 is shown,including an RS485 transceiver chip 408 (U12). This circuit isessentially the same as shown in FIG. 11H, and as described withreference to FIG. 11H. The receiving parts of the transceiver are at 414(RO) and the enable signal at 412, where the + signals 416 and the −signals 418 (FIG. 11H) are received. The transmitting parts are at 410(DI) and 412 (DE) through the enable pin (EN). When, for example, theuser interface from FIG. 11D is enabled to transmit, the dimmer unit,FIG. 12D enable would be low, so that it could receive. Likewise, therewould be no transmission from 472 on FIG. 12D because microcontroller254 from FIG. 11D would be transmitting. No signaling would be comingover 472 on FIG. 12D, but signaling would be coming in, as 414 shown inFIG. 12C, i.e., signaling from the RS485 transceiver and going to pin474 on the microcontroller. The signal is then decoded in the software,and expressed, as in accordance with one of the algorithms describedherein, for example in FIG. 15, as PWM signals, either “HI” or “LO”.When, for example, an enable, 0 or 5 volt signal arrives HI, as shown inFIG. 12D, such as a “0” signal tells the circuit to not enable transmit.Then the connection at 410 (DI) does not transmit any signal. As isapparent from this example and FIG. 12C, during normal operation, whenone of the two transceivers is transmitting data, the other is receivingthe data, and vice versa.

Referring to FIG. 12D, dimmer control microprocessor/microcontroller 254is shown. For a six-color lighting system, the dimmer unit 430 wouldhave two of such microprocessors, one for each of the three colors. Eachmicroprocessor is, in the preferred exemplary embodiment, the sametype/model of microprocessor as shown in FIG. 11D, but uses pins fordifferent functions than are used in FIG. 11D. As shown in FIG. 11D, themicroprocessor is used primarily for processing user interface signals.As shown in FIG. 12D, that exemplary microprocessor is used take theoutput from the FIG. 11D circuit, process them into PWM control signalsand then sends the PWM control signals to the MOSFET drivers, andultimately to the LED lighting panels. The FIG. 12D microprocessorincludes pin 470 for an enable signal, transmit pin 472, receive pin474, and pin outs for three PWM values, one value for each of threecolors (being PWM values at 476 (PWM1), at 478 (PWM2) and at 480 (PWM3).The second microprocessor would output the PWM values for the otherthree colors.

Referring to FIG. 12E, an exemplary “low side” MOSFET driver circuit 914and MOSFET 908 are shown. Driver circuits and MOSFETs for the othercolors function in the same way. The exemplary PWM1 signal 902 (0 to 5volts) goes into driver microprocessor 900 (U3) at the input +1(designated as “IN+). This means that it is not an inverted signal,i.e., that the polarity of output 476 shown in FIG. 12D and the polarityof the FIG. 12E input match, both + or both −. Microprocessor 900 (U3)is powered by voltage 904 (Vdd2), and charges capacitor 906 sufficientto drive the MOSFET 908 (Q1) when the capacitor discharges according thecontrol signaling. When the capacitor 906 discharges, then current flowsout of gate 910 of the MOSFET 908 and flows into resistor R38. MOSFET908 shown in FIG. 12E is for one of the colors, and is replicated forthe other five colors. The six MOSFETs are shown in FIG. 12A as 446,448, 450, 451, 452 and 454. Referring again to FIG. 12E, channel signal912 is a low side signal to an LED, brought in from connector 456, asshown in FIGS. 12A and 12B, where the LEDs make contact with and receiveinstructions from the dimmer unit 430.

Referring to FIG. 12F, light output circuit 916 includes an 8-pinconnector 938, which in the exemplary embodiment is a commerciallyavailable, Phoenix brand 1575284, 5.08 mm connector (also labeled J2 inFIG. 12F). Connector 938 functions to enable connecting signals for allsix colors and two voltage sense signals for determining current flowingthrough the circuit. Power at the chosen voltage, such as 12, 24, 48volts etc., enters at 918, and then passes through resistors 920, 922and current sensing connections 924, 226, which are connected to theanode side of the circuit, at 918 (Vin). The current sense signals areconnected to the microprocessor, so that the microprocessor can quicklyturn the system off upon sensing an over current condition. The othersix connections, 912 (red), 928 (green), 930 (blue), 932 (amber), 934(warm white), 936 (cool white) are connected at the cathode side of thecircuit, and connect directly to the LED strings at their cathodes. Inthis preferred, exemplary embodiment a common anode is used, so that allof the LEDs share the same part of the circuit. As one of the respectiveMOSFETs (one for each color) turns on, it connects the respective signalline to ground, which causes current to flow to the respective LED andto light up (turn on) that LED.

Referring to FIGS. 13 and 14 major components of the presently describedsystem embodiment 502 will be described in relation to a conventionallighting system 500, and to describe one of the significant improvementsthat the presently disclosed systems have in comparison to conventionalLED-based lighting systems. The FIG. 13 system 500 includes conventionalDMX console 26 providing conventional DMX protocol signals 28 toconventional DMX controller 34 that is powered by a separate,conventional power supply 30. Conventional PWM control signals 36 areprovided from the controller 34 to a conventional LED-based lightingpanel 38. The present FIG. 14 system 502 includes console 27 that canprovide, for example 8-bit DMX protocol signals, or signals using analternate, preferred 16-bit protocol 29, to interface 170 (also referredto as a UI ballast circuit, or “ballast”), which includes an internalpower supply. Interface 170 provides serial data (or data in accordancewith 8-bit, 16-bit or other protocol) 172 to dimmer unit 174, whichconverts the serial (RS485) data, into PWM values 176 and then transmitsthose values 176 to lighting panel 178. Thus, in FIG. 13, the controller34 functions as both the control circuit and the dimming circuit, andthe PWM output 36 is sent to the lighting panel. Often the lightingpanel(s) is/are at a relatively great physical distance away from thecontroller 34. In FIG. 14, the dimming unit 174 is a separate,stand-alone unit that functions as only the dimming circuit and isplaced physically close to the lighting panel to minimize or eliminatevoltage line loss. Preferably, dimming unit 174 is physically attachedto the back side of lighting panel 178.

While the 16-bit (or other protocol) signals 172 are serial data and DC+and DC− voltage, PWM signals 176 are voltage signals that constantlyoscillate between “on” and “off”. As is well known, line voltage sufferstransmission loss, and as is also well known, suffers such loss to amuch, much greater extent than does transmission of serial data througha conductive line. During typical use in this field, there is asignificant distance or length between the controller 34 and thelighting panel 38, which length can, and in some instances does degradethe PWM values during transmission. In the presently described systems,however, the dimmer unit 174 is located physically close to eachassociated lighting panel 178 such that the PWM values 176 that areoutput from each dimmer unit/circuit 174 experience little or no voltageline loss prior to reaching each of the lighting panels 178. Inconventional systems, there is often a relatively great physicaldistance between controller 34 in FIG. 13 and the panel 38. Thus, inconventional lighting systems the signaling that is typicallytransmitted a relatively great distance is PWM signal which sufferssignificant line loss. In contrast, the PWM values in the presentsystems travel only a relatively short distance and suffer little or novoltage line loss. Preferably, the dimmer units 174 will be positioneddirectly behind the lighting panels, thus providing a distance of lessthan 6-inches between the dimmer unit and the lighting panel inputleads. Because of the reduced/eliminated line loss capability of thepresent systems, there is greatly increased ability to control theactual color output from the lighting panel in comparison to colorcontrol in conventional LED panel lighting systems. In such conventionalsystems, voltage line loss can result in the input voltage at a panel,or at specific LED diodes on a panel being less than the requiredvoltage for a specific color in a specific LED. This situation could,for example, cause the actual color(s) output from the lighting panel tobe different than the intended color(s) and/or to have differentintensities from panel to panel (if the separate panels are located atdifferent distances from the controller(s) and/or from one area of apanel to another area of that same panel, if the voltage at one area ofthe panel is different than the voltage at another area of the paneland/or either voltage is at a transition point for changing from onecolor to another color). In another example, consider two identicallighting panels, each of which is located at a different distance fromthe controller(s), with each panel programmed to emit red light. For onepanel the distance is small, resulting in no significant voltage lineloss, and for the other panel the distance is great enough to causeabout ⅓ of the voltage to be lost. In such a situation, the first panelwould emit full red, but the second panel, having only about ⅔ of theintended voltage would emit partial red. This problem is also presentwhen more than one color is being powered.

Referring to FIG. 15 an exemplary, preferred algorithm 700 for atwo-white, or hybrid white LED lighting system embodiment is shown. Thealgorithm 700 takes DMX protocol signals, or other protocol inputsignals, such as 16-bit signals or 10-bit signals from a user interface,such as interface 170 of FIG. 14 and interface 208 of FIG. 11A, andconverts that input into PWM values that are then used to drive a LEDcircuit or LED panel(s). In the FIG. 15 two-color embodiment, a warmwhite and a cool white are the two starting, or unblended colors. Thealgorithm 700 is comprised of pseudo code that is shown in four mainprocessing sections 702, 704, 706 and 708.

Algorithm 700 is used for determining the PWM values needed to produce aspecific color of white, at a specific intensity or brightness fromblending or mixing two different white colors in a two-color white lightmixing system that has one unmixed warm white channel and one unmixedcool white channel. FIG. 15 includes an exemplary calculation of thesettings needed to achieve a user selected (predetermined) white lightat 4,000 degrees Kelvin (K) and at a brightness or intensity of 50% ofthe maximum brightness of the specific lighting panel used. In general aspecific white correlated color temperature (CCT) is selected as thefinal mixed color, and a final intensity or brightness for the finalmixed color is chosen by the user, but in this example the CCT and thebrightness are given. User inputs on user interface 208 FIG. 11A) areoperated by a user, in accordance with the novel algorithm of thepresent system and process, to achieve the final mixed white light to beoutput from conventional LED hybrid white panel 62 (FIG. 3) and at thefinal, chosen intensity. First section 702 of the algorithm includes (i)a camera with a 4,000K white balance setting (that is also the CCT thatis the given final CCT for this example); (ii) LED hybrid white panel 62comprised of an array of warm white LEDs with an associated colortemperature of 2,600K and an array of cool white LEDs with an associatedcolor temperature of 6,200K; (iii) user interface 208 connected tolighting fixture control circuit 430, typically referred to as a“dimmer,” or “dimmer unit” (FIG. 12A) with user-selected settingscorresponding to the desired light output of hybrid white panel 62—e.g.,in this example the final color temperature of 4,000K and finalintensity of 50% light output; and (iv) dimmer unit 430, which isoperatively connected to and positioned physically between userinterface 208 and panel 62.

Also referring to FIG. 15, section 704 of algorithm 700 lists variablessufficient for the system to function for its intended purpose andwithin the overall algorithm 700. “K_min” is an exemplary, constantvalue for the color temperature of the warm white LEDs of panel 62. Forother LEDs and/or other embodiments, “K_min” may be lower or higher.“K_max” is an exemplary, constant value for the color temperature of thecool white LEDs of panel 62. For other LEDs and/or other embodiments,“K_max” may be lower or higher but will always be higher than “K_min”for a two-channel system. “K_target” is a variable representative of thedesired or predetermined color temperature output from panel 62 selectedby the user. “P_max” is the highest value allowed by the control signalprotocol of user interface 208 (e.g., the 8-bit DMX protocol or thepreferred 16-bit protocol although other n-bit protocols can enable thesystem). “P_target” is a variable chosen to group the overall algorithm700 into meaningful sections. “COOL_val” and “WARM_val” are variablesused for the intensities of the cool white channel and the warm whitechannel, respectively, for determining the color temperature, withbrightness compensation both before and after the overall intensityvariable “I” is applied or factored into the calculation. “I” is avariable for the predetermined light intensity output from panel 62 asselected by the user. “PWMres” is a variable that corresponds to theresolution of the output of the PWM microprocessor pin(s) (pins 476,478, and 480 from FIG. 12D) on dimmer unit 430 (e.g., a 10-bit processorpin). “COOL_pwmval” and “WARM_pwmval” are variables that correspond tothe intensities of the cool white channel and the warm white channel,respectively, used to obtain the predetermined color temperature afterbrightness compensation, after the application of intensity “I,” andafter conversion from the exemplary 16-bit control signal protocol tothe preferred 10-bit resolution of the PWM processor pin.

Section 706 of algorithm 700 provides the equations for calculating thepredetermined color temperature, FINAL CCT, from the system's startingvalues, with calculations shown both before and after the application ofintensity “I.” First, the RAW CCT is calculated by determining threeintermediate values: “P_target”; COOL_val; and WARM_val. P_target is“P_max” divided by the difference between “K_max” and “K_min,” whichprovides the number of bits per degree Kelvin for that protocol (8-bit,10-bit or 16-bit, for example). Then the number of bits per degreeKelvin is multiplied by the difference between “K_target” and “K_min” inorder to arrive at the “P_target” intermediate variable. “P_target” isset to equal “COOL_val.” Then the intermediate variable “WARM_val” iscalculated by subtracting “P_target” from “P_max”. Because “P_max”represents the maximum value of the light output, the sum of “WARM_val”and “COOL_val” cannot exceed “P_max,” and must be equal to “P_max”, inaccordance with one of the principles of the present system, that is,achieving desired color mixing and/or desaturation without changing theintensity of the unmixed colors and/or intensity of the unmixed colorsat their prior level or degree of desaturation.

Then, in determining the final proportions of the constituent colors andat the final brightness or intensity, FINAL CCT, the intermediate, colorcompensated values (for this two-color, hybrid white color example),“COOL_val” and “WARM_val,” are each multiplied by the intensity value“I,” to yield the predetermined intensity at the predetermined colortemperature of light output. Section 708 of algorithm 700 sets up asimple ratio between the “COOL_val” (and the maximum resolution of“P_max”) and “COOL_pwmval” (and the maximum resolution of “PWMres”) forthe purposes of obtaining the “COOL_pwmval” that corresponds to the“COOL_val” but with a value that can be processed by the PWM processorpins 476, 478, and 480, which in this example can handle 10-bit values.Both the “WARM_val” and “WARM_pwmval” variables undergo the sameoperations as “COOL_val” and “COOL_pwmval.” These 10-bit values are thenoutput from the PWM processor pins on microprocessor 254 from FIG. 12Don dimmer unit 430 directly to PWM input 902 (FIG. 12E) of the MOSFETdriver circuit 914 (FIG. 12E) on dimmer unit 430, as described in detailabove with reference to FIG. 12E. For this example, dimmer unit 430 musthave at least one microprocessor 254 (shown as microprocessors 442 or444 from FIG. 12A) and at least two MOSFET driver circuits (shown asMOSFET driver circuits 458, 460, 462, 464, 466, and/or 468 from FIG.12B) and at least two MOSFETS (shown as MOSFETs 446, 448, 450, 451, 452,and/or 454 from FIG. 12A), such that at least two colors can beaccommodated.

Referring to FIG. 16, current control LED circuit 732 is used forproviding current to two different colors of LEDs 718, such as warmwhite and cool white LEDs. Current control LED circuit 732 is comprisedof microcontroller unit (MCU) 730, LED 718, inductor 720, MOSFET 714,resistor 722, and Schottky diode 716. Data, such as CCT and brightnessor intensity, as seen above in FIG. 15, and generated by, for example,DMX console 72 (FIG. 4) or user interface 208 (FIG. 11A) is sent to MCU730. MCU 730 then processes this data and converts it into the signalsneeded for the algorithms of the present system and process, similar tothose found in FIG. 15 described above, which are algorithms suited tothe preferred PWM circuits of FIGS. 17, 20, and 22 (described below) asopposed to the presently described current control circuit (and alsothose of FIGS. 19 and 21) but can be adopted for such current controlcircuits, such as the one being presently described. Signal 712 startingfrom MCU 730 is a gate switch signal that is connected to the gate ofMOSFET 714 and drives MOSFET 714, which turns on and off with a veryhigh frequency (e.g., 400,000 Hz) that allows LED 718 to be connected toground, which causes LED 718 to turn on in a configuration referred toas a low side driver, as MOSFET 714 is closer to ground or negativevoltage 728 and LED 718 is closer to positive voltage 726. The specifictype of LED 718 being used determines the magnitude of the requisitevoltage. A low side driver configuration is used because that type ofsystem is more efficient, and generates less heat, because the inputvoltage 726 drops significantly after passing through LED 718. Schottkydiode 716 allows current that cannot pass through MOSFET 714 when it isoff to pass back through LED 718 and inductor 720 and either throughMOSFET 714 or back through Schottky diode 716, in that order, and not inthe opposite direction. Inductor 720 is similar to a control valve inthe sense that, due to the properties of an inductor, which would beknown to those skilled in this field, the speed through which currentflowing through inductor 720 is decreased. The combination of MOSFET 714and the loop comprised of a Schottky diode 716 and inductor 720comprises a buck current control circuit, which would be known to thoseskilled in this field. Current that flows through LED 718 and MOSFET 714also flows through resistor 722 when MOSFET 714 is on, producing aslight voltage difference, which is used as feedback 724 to be sent toMCU 730 to determine how much current is flowing through the system sothat signal 712 will either be active (if the current is less than thelimit set in MCU 730) or inactive (if the current exceeds the limit setin MCU 730) as needed to drive MOSFET 714. As part of color compensationdescribed above, when current to LED 718 increases, the current to theother LED in this two-LED current control system 732 decreases.

Referring to FIG. 17, pulse-width-modulation (PWM) LED circuit 734 isused for switching two different colors of LEDs 756 and 758 (e.g., warmwhite and cool white LEDs, respectively) on and off very rapidly as ameans of increasing or decreasing the amount of current flowing throughLED circuit 734, which directly relates to the increase or decrease,respectively, in intensity or brightness of LEDs 756 and 758. Circuit734 includes microcontroller unit (MCU) 730, a MOSFET driver 738 foreach LED color, low side MOSFET power switch 742 for each color, snubbercircuit 748 for each color, warm white channel 756, cool white channel758, resistor 749, and high side current sensor 752. Data, such as CCTand brightness or intensity, as seen above in FIG. 15, and generated by,for example, an 8-bit DMX console 72 (FIG. 4) or a 16-bit user interface208 (FIG. 11A) is sent to MCU 730. MCU 730 then processes this data andconverts it into the signals needed for algorithms, similar to and/orthe same type as found in FIG. 15 described above, which algorithmsenable the preferred PWM circuits of the presently described lightingsystems, such as in FIGS. 20 and 22 (described below). MCU 730 outputsPWM signals 736 into each of the MOSFET drivers 738. PWM signals 736have a specific period determined by the frequency of the signal and aduty cycle during which the signal is high for a portion of the period.PWM signals 736 have a resolution or number of discrete levels (e.g.,10-bit resolution or 1024 levels, including 0) based on thespecifications of the PWM processor pins on MCU 730, which varies fromMCU to MCU. PWM signals 736 are not powerful enough to drive the MOSFETsdirectly, because the MOSFETs requires a relatively large amount ofenergy to switch a relatively large LED load on and off very rapidly.Therefore, the MOSFET drivers 738 are used to amplify the PWM signals736.

Amplified PWM signals 740 are connected to the gate of MOSFET 714 anddrive the MOSFETs 714, which turn on and off with a very high frequency(e.g., at about 400,000 Hz) that allows cool white channel or cool whiteLED 758 to be connected to ground or negative voltage 744. This causesLED 718 to turn “on” in a configuration referred to as a low sidedriver, because MOSFET 742 is closer to ground or negative voltage 744and cool white LED 758 is closer to positive voltage 746. The specifictype of cool white or any other color LED being used determines themagnitude of the requisite voltage. The reason for using a low sidedriver configuration is so that the system is more efficient with lessheat generation, because input voltage 746 will have droppedsignificantly after passing through LED 758. Snubber circuit 748 iscomprised of a Schottky diode and a capacitor and is connected inparallel with LED 758. Snubber circuit 748 redirects the energy thatdoes not flow through MOSFET 742 as a result of MOSFET 742 turning off.The energy is redirected back into LED 758 to protect from damagingMOSFET 742 and MCU 730 and to make circuit 734 more efficient. Resistor749 creates a voltage differential between positive LED voltage 746before resistor 749 and after resistor 749. This voltage differential isa relatively small differential but is large enough that high sidecurrent sensor 752 uses that to output a DC voltage 754 (e.g., 0 VDC to5 VDC) that is sent to MCU 730, allowing MCU 730 to know how muchcurrent is flowing through the system. MCU 730 converts voltage 754 intoa digital value, which allows MCU 730 to calculate the total currentflowing through circuit 734 and to either increase or decrease the PWMsignal 736 to ensure that the proper amount of current is flowingthrough circuit 734. As part of color compensation described above, whencurrent to LED 756 increases, the current to LED 758 decreases, and viceversa.

Referring to FIGS. 18A, 18B, 18C, and 18D, algorithm 761 of thepresently described system embodiment is used for determining the PWMvalues needed to produce a specific color of white, a fully saturatedhue, or a color that results from the combination of a specific color ofwhite (CCT) and a fully saturated hue (described above as a huedesaturated with hybrid white), at a specific intensity or brightnessfrom blending or mixing four different fully saturated hues and twodifferent white colors in a preferred six-color light mixing system thathas one unmixed red channel, one unmixed green channel one unmixed bluechannel, one unmixed amber channel, one unmixed warm white channel, andone unmixed cool white channel. Algorithm 761 is based on the principlesof FIG. 15 algorithm 700, adding four fully saturated hues in additionto the two white colors in algorithm 700, as will be appreciated bythose skilled in this field. While four fully saturated hues and twowhite colors are used in this preferred embodiment, more or fewer huesand more white colors may be used as also would be understood by someoneskilled in this field.

FIGS. 18A, 18B, 18C, and 18D include exemplary calculations of thesettings needed to achieve a predetermined light with a specific peachhue with a 50% desaturation using white light at 3,200K and at abrightness or intensity of 37.5% of the maximum brightness of thespecific lighting panel used. In general either a specific color ofwhite, a fully saturated hue, or a color that results from thecombination of a specific color of white and a fully saturated hue(described above as a hue desaturated with hybrid white) is selected asthe final mixed color, and a final intensity or brightness for the finalmixed color is chosen, but in this example the hue, CCT, saturation, andthe brightness are given. User inputs on user interface 208 (FIG. 11A)are operated by a user, in accordance with the algorithm, to achieve thefinal mixed color light (either a specific color of white, a fullysaturated hue, or a hue desaturated with hybrid white) to be output fromLED six-color panel 178 (FIG. 9) and at the final, chosen intensity.Referring to FIG. 18A, first section 760 of the algorithm includes (i) acamera with a 3,200K white balance setting (that is also the CCT that isthe user selected final CCT for this example); (ii) LED six-color panel178 comprised of an array of RGBA LEDs, an array of warm white LEDs withan associated color temperature of 3,200K and an array of cool whiteLEDs with an associated color temperature of 5,600K; (iii) userinterface 208 connected to dimmer unit 430 (FIG. 12A) with user-selectedsettings corresponding to the desired light output of six-color panel178—e.g., in this example the final hue of peach, the final CCT of3,200K, the final saturation of 50%, and final intensity of 37.5% lightoutput; and (iv) dimmer unit 430, which is operatively connected to andpositioned physically between user interface 208 and panel 178,preferably attached to the back side of panel 178.

Also referring to FIG. 18A, section 762 of algorithm 761 lists variablessufficient for the system to function for its intended purpose andwithin the overall algorithm 761. The definitions for “K_min,” “K_max,”“K_target,” “COOL_val,” “WARM_val,” “I,” “PWMres,” “COOL_pwmval,” and“WARM_pwmval” are the same here as those definitions found for thesevariables in the FIG. 15 example. In this example, “P2_max” and“P2_target” are the same as the FIG. 15 variables “P_max” and“P_target,” respectively. “Hue_val” is a variable representative of thedesired or predetermined hue output from panel 178 selected by the userafter being converted through multiplication of “Hue_target” withanother number (the process of which described below) to the appropriaten-bit number. In this example, “Hue_val” is converted to a 16-bit numberto work with a 16-bit protocol. “Hue_target” is a variablerepresentative of the desired or predetermined hue output from panel 178selected by the user and is very similar to “Hue_val,” with the onlydifference being that “Hue_target” may not be in the format of anappropriate n-bit number for further calculation in this algorithm 761,thereby requiring further manipulation as described above with“Hue_val.” “P1_max” is the highest value allowed by the control signalprotocol of DMX console 72 (FIG. 4) (e.g., the 8-bit DMX protocol).“R_max” is a variable that takes as its value the larger of the twovalues provided in the conditional “if statements” in section 764 and ispredefined in the software of user interface 208 for a given six-colorsystem, with its value changing as the conditions of one of the “ifstatements” are met. “RED_val,” “AMBER_val,” “GREEN_val,” and“BLUE_val,” are variables used for the intensities of the red, amber,green, and blue channels, respectively, for determining the final mixedcolor, with brightness compensation both before and after being mixedwith brightness-compensated hybrid white and both before and after theoverall intensity variable “I” is applied or factored into thecalculation. “S” is a variable for the predetermined saturationlevel—that is, a level that results in the combination of a specific CCTand a fully saturated hue—for panel 178. “RED_pwmval,” “AMBER_pwmval,”“GREEN_pwmval,” and “BLUE_pwmval,” are variables that correspond to theintensities of the red, amber, green, and blue channels, respectively,used to obtain the predetermined hue after brightness compensation, theapplication of saturation “S,” the application intensity “I,” and afterconversion from the exemplary 16-bit control signal protocol to apreferred 10-bit resolution of the PWM processor pin.

Sections 764 (FIG. 18B), 766 (FIG. 18C), 768 (FIG. 18D), and 770 (FIG.18D) of algorithm 761 provide the equations for calculating thepredetermined final mixed color, FINAL MIXED COLOR, from the system'sstarting values, with calculations shown both before and after theapplication of intensity “I.” First, in sections 764, 766, and 768, theRAW HUE is calculated by determining “Hue_val,” “R_max,” “RED_val,”“AMBER_val,” “GREEN_val,” and “BLUE_val.” “Hue_val” is “Hue_target”multiplied by the quantity of “P1_max” plus 1, which converts the“Hue_target” value into a 16-bit value, per this example. This 16-bit“Hue_val” value meets the conditions of only one of the subsequent “ifstatements,” allowing for the appropriate calculations to be done tocalculate the appropriate values for the red, amber, green, and bluechannels. Once conditions are met for one of the “if statements,”“R_max” assumes a predetermined value written into the code, which isequal to the maximum value of a given range. This range is derived fromthe ratios between the wavelengths of the specific colors—red, amber,green, and blue—such that there is a dominant color and an adjustingcolor. For example, based on the properties of the color peach, giventhe colors red, amber, green, and blue, that peach is created by mixingthe unmixed colors red and amber. To create the color peach, a ratiobetween the intensities of red and amber must be obtained such thatamber is the dominant color and red becomes the adjusting color. In thisparticular example, conditions for the second “if statement”(“Hue_val”=4369 to 8738) from section 764 are met. Given the subsequentcalculations for the second “if statement,” “RED_val” equals thequantity of “Hue_val” divided by “R_max” multiplied by “P2_max” suchthat a value as small as 50% of “P2_max” and as large as “P2_max” itselfis calculated. In this particular, example, “RED_val” will never exceedbut can only be less than or equal to the value of the dominant coloramber (“AMBER_val”). These calculations establish a ratio between theintensities of the red and amber channels such that the mixing of thesechannels results in the color peach. A simple ratio is then providedsuch that the combination of “AMBER_val” and “RED_val” shall nottogether exceed the value of “P2_max,” which is 65535 in this exampleusing a 16-bit protocol; this ensures color compensation as describedabove for the purpose of maintaining a constant brightness.

Once the RAW HUE is calculated, the RAW CCT must be calculated (FIG. 18Dsection 768). These calculations are analogous to those from FIG. 15,section 706 described above. Then, in determining the SATURATIONADJUSTMENT (i.e., the ratio between the RAW HUE and RAW CCT, describedabove as alternative desaturation), the intermediate, color compensatedvalues (for this six-color example), “RED_val,” “AMBER_val,”“GREEN_val,” and “BLUE_val” are each multiplied by the saturation value“S” while “COOL_val” and “WARM_val” are each multiplied by 1 minus thesaturation value “S” (a variable which takes as its value a numberbetween and including 0 to 1) to yield the predetermined saturation atthe predetermined final mixed color of light output (FIG. 18D section770), an example of alternative desaturation described above. Then, indetermining the final proportion of the constituent colors and at thefinal brightness or intensity, FINAL MIXED COLOR, the intermediate colorcompensated values with saturation adjustment (for this six-colorexample) are each multiplied by the intensity value “I,” to yield thepredetermined intensity at the predetermined final mixed color of lightoutput (FIG. 18D section 770). FIG. 18D section 772 of algorithm 761sets up a simple ratio between “RED_val” (and the maximum resolution of“P2_max”) and “RED_pwmval” (and the maximum resolution of “PWMres”) forthe purpose of obtaining the “RED_pwmval” that corresponds to the“RED_val” but with a value that can be processed by the PWM processorpins 476, 478, and 480 (FIG. 12D), which in this example uses 10-bitvalues. The variables of “AMBER_val,” “AMBER_pwmval,” “GREEN_val,”“GREEN_pwmval,” “BLUE_val,” “BLUE_pwmval,” “COOL_val,” “COOL_pwmval,”“WARM_val,” and “WARM_pwmval” undergo the same operations as “RED_val”and “RED_pwmval.” These 10-bit values are then be output from the PWMprocessor pins on microprocessor 254 from FIG. 12D on dimmer unit 430directly to PWM input 902 (FIG. 12E) of the MOSFET driver circuit 914(FIG. 12E) on dimmer unit 430, as described in detail above withreference to FIG. 12E. For this example, dimmer unit 430 must have atleast two microprocessors 254 (shown as microprocessors 442 and 444 fromFIG. 12A) and at least six MOSFET driver circuits (shown as MOSFETdriver circuits 458, 460, 462, 464, 466, and 468 from FIG. 12B) and atleast six MOSFETS (shown as MOSFETs 446, 448, 450, 451, 452, and 454from FIG. 12A), such that at least six colors can be accommodated.

Referring to FIG. 19, the current control LED circuit shown behaves thesame as current control circuit 732 from FIG. 16, with the exceptionthat the FIG. 19 embodiment is used for providing current to sixdifferent colors of LEDs 718 (such as red, green, blue, amber, warmwhite, and cool white LEDs).

Referring to FIG. 20, the PWM LED circuit shown behaves the same as PWMcircuit 734 from FIG. 17, with the exception that the FIG. 20 embodimentis used for controlling six different colors of LEDs—e.g., red channelor LED 774, green LED 776, blue LED 778, amber LED 780, warm white LED756, and cool white LED 758, although other unmixed colors may be used.

Referring to FIG. 21, the current control LED circuit shown behaves thesame as current control circuit 732 from FIG. 16 and the FIG. 19 currentcontrol LED circuit, with the exception that the FIG. 21 embodiment isused for providing current to “n” different colors of LEDs 718, where“n” can be any whole integer number greater than or equal to 1.

Referring to FIG. 22, the PWM LED circuit shown behaves the same as PWMcircuit 734 from FIG. 17, with the exception that the FIG. 20 embodimentis used for controlling “n” different colors of LEDs, where “n” can beany whole integer number greater than or equal to 1.

Luminaire Brightness and Hue Control

Again referring to FIG. 8, dimmer unit 174 preferably converts signals172 generated by user interface 170 in accordance with the user'sinstructions and sends the converted signals, as shown at arrow 176, tolighting source(s), fixtures or luminaires 178. The converted signalsare referred to as PWM signals as described above. The luminaires thenprovide illumination at a particular hue and at a particular brightness,per the PWM signals, as shown at arrow 180 to illuminate an object 182for recording by a camera 186, as described above. Pseudocode for eachof several, various, exemplary embodiments is provided in FIGS. 15, 18A,18B, 18C and 18D. Power (current) control and hue control isaccomplished through conventional pulse width modulation (PWM) controlfor an exemplary 6-channel system, as are shown in FIGS. 19 and 20 anddescribed herein. Other 2-channel and n-channel systems are describedabove. As is well known in this field, PWM control is accomplished bymanaging the duty cycle of the LED(s), such that, for example, if theduty cycle has no pulse, the circuit is “off”. If the duty cycle is setto be a full duty cycle, then the corresponding LED(s) are at 100%power. If the duty cycle is set to have the LED(s) powered on for 50% ofthe time, the human eye would perceive this as the LED(s) operating at50% power. Control of the brightness or intensity of LED-based light byuse of the PWM technique is well known in this field.

The most preferred type of camera for use in the present system is adigital video camera that includes conventional sensors. As will beappreciated by those skilled in this field, non-digital video cameras aswell as digital and non-digital still cameras may be used in accordancewith the principles of the presently described systems and processes.The preferred luminaires are conventional red (R), green (G), blue (B),white and amber (A) light emitting diode (LED) type lighting sources. Aswill also be appreciated by those skilled in this field, digital camerasdo not see, that is, do not sense specific colors in the way that humanvision sees colors illuminated by natural or artificial light. Digitalcameras do not have brains, like humans, and do not automatically adjusttheir sensors to account for the quantity or quality of light. For adigital camera, a color such as “white” is represented by a combinationof values generated by several color sensors positioned in the camera.These color sensors sense or “see” color differently than the human eyesenses or “sees” color.

Sensors in cameras “see” or sense the color(s) reflected from theobjects and send signals representative of the seen or sensed colors toa display. The display then displays an object image of the actualobject that has been illuminated by light source(s) and recorded by thecamera. The object image is displayed to a viewer, typically a humanviewer who observes the object image with his or her eyes. In accordancewith the presently disclosed system and process, the intended purposedof the controller is to cause the light source(s) to illuminate anobject, so that the viewer sees the object image on a display as if theviewer was observing the object directly with the viewer's own eyes andunder natural, sunlight illumination. Because of differences betweennatural light and artificial light, such as LED-based light, and thedifferent ways that digital cameras sense and process LED-based light,there is a need for several types of light compensation. The presentlydisclosed systems and processes thus enable compensation for thedifferences (i) between natural light and artificial light thatilluminates an object and (ii) between how the human eye processes lightreflected from a natural light illuminated object and how a digitalcamera processes light reflected from an artificial light illuminatedobject. Thus, the present systems and processes compensate for theartificial light source and for the digital camera sensors so that theobject image shown on the display appears to the human viewer to havethe same colors and brightness as does the actual object illuminated bynatural light. If the object is white, the object image on the displayappears to be the same white at the same brightness or same intensity;if the object is orange, the image of the orange object on the displayalso appears to have the color that is same hue or shade of orange andat the same intensity or brightness. If the object is a yellow banana,the image of the banana on the display also appears to have the same hueof the color yellow and the same brightness. The dimmer unit enables theuser, via the user interface, to adapt and control the output of theartificial illumination to match or correlate with the camera'scapability to sense colors reflected from the object recorded by thecamera, and thus to control the colors shown on a display so that thecolors of the image object match or closely match the colors the viewerwould see of the actual object when illuminated by natural light.

The presently disclosed systems and methods also enable calibratinglight output from a particular luminaire, or group of luminaires to suitthe needs or requirements of particular camera sensors and/or to suitthe specification of a particular film stock in addition to calibratingfor that camera's settings, including white balance settings.

Calibration for Variations in Intensity/Brightness and Hue AmongLuminaires and Cameras

With reference to the process of calibrating to account for variationsin light sensitivity of each camera, and as referred to herein, the termcamera sensor(s) generally refers to conventional light sensors used ondigital cameras, such as charge coupled devices (CCDs) or complementarymetal oxide semiconductors (CMOS). For instance, if twice as many redpickups (sensors) are positioned on the camera in comparison to thenumber of green or blue pickups, processing only half as much red outputwould be necessary in comparison to processing the green and blue outputfrom the green and blue LEDs in order to result in illumination thatwould have the same relative intensities of the original light reflectedfrom the object. An example of intensity calibration for sensor(s) inaccordance with the presently described systems and processes isprovided in Appendix 2.

Luminaire calibration takes into account variations in each camera's RGBsensor's brightness sensitivity will be described. Calibrating theluminaire(s) for variations in sensitivity of the sensors used inindividual cameras is an important aspect of the present systems andprocesses. Such calibration involves taking into account the ratio ofred, green, and blue pickups on a particular camera sensor and usingthis information to determine the appropriate intensities of, forexample, the red, green, and blue LEDs on the luminaire in order toresult in artificial light output that corresponds to that particularcamera's light sensitivity. Such calibration involves determiningcertain set points for each light controller, such that when aparticular camera is used to record images, the system automaticallycompensates to set the light output of the artificial light luminaire(s)so that the image object seen by a human viewer appears to beilluminated by natural light. In conventional systems, each time adifferent camera was used to record a scene, a separate, “trial anderror” effort had to be made to calibrate or choose particular settingsfor the luminaires so that they would output light that compensated forthe variations in the light sensitivity of each camera. In the presentlydescribed preferred embodiment systems, this same “trial and error”effort may be used, especially in those instances in which publishedtechnical specifics are unavailable or nonexistent or in those instanceswhen such an effort is preferred to allow for a more subjective,artistic calibration. Such a “trial and error” calibration is writteninto the user interface software.

With reference to Appendix 2, camera 1 has red, green and blue pickupswithin its sensor, and with the ratio of sensitivity of each color toeach other color to be 3, 1 and 1.5 for R, G and B, respectively. Theweight of each sensor's sensitivities is the inverse of the sensitivity,such that when sensitivity to red is three times the sensitivity togreen, then only one-third as much red light would be needed to properlyprovide or output red from that camera. The weight of each sensor'ssensitivity is shown in the Appendix 2 example. A second camera exampleis provided in Appendix 2 for the same luminaire.

With reference to Appendices 3 and 4, luminaire calibration also takesinto account variations in each camera's RGB sensor's hue sensitivity,as exemplified in Appendix 3, and then combines the brightnesssensitivity calibration with the hue sensitivity calibration to resultin an “all-camera” calibration, as shown in Appendix 4. Consider, forexample that an actor's dress is a particular shade of red and that theparticular shade of red is perceived by a human as and is output from aluminaire as light at 625 nm. Consider a two camera example, in whichvideo camera 1 is comprised, in part, of sensors that regard “red” asbeing 650 nm light. Therefore, in order for the camera to record lightthat is later to be displayed as red light with a hue corresponding tothe 625 nm light output of the luminaire as seen by a human viewer, thelight output of the luminaire(s) must be adjusted or calibrated so thatit transmits light that camera 1, through its sensors, perceives to be650 nm light. Once the luminaire(s) output a shade of red light suitedto camera 1's red pickups in its sensor, camera 1 will sense the lightto be exactly the same hue of red that the human would see as the actualcolor of the red dress.

In addition to intensity or brightness calibration, calibration for thehue of the light output is an important aspect of recording images inthis field, and the present systems and processes also provide for andenable brightness and hue calibration to result in a calibrationreferred to as all-camera calibration. Hue calibration involves takinginto account the specific wavelengths of color recognized by the red,green, and blue pickups on a particular camera sensor and using thisinformation to determine the appropriate ratios of light output from thered, green, and blue LEDs to achieve the appearance of outputting thewavelengths of color that match those picked up by the camera sensor. Inother words, hue calibration is a process of adjusting the wavelength oflight colors so that the hue of colors output from the camera is matchedto, or approximates the hue of the colors output from the luminaire asviewed by the human (and thus input into the camera). For example, anexemplary all-camera calibration for a two-camera system is shown inAppendix 4. For a particular camera that has red pickups that recognizea wavelength of 650 nm as being red while the exemplary luminaire iscomprised of red, green, and blue LEDs with wavelengths of 625 nm, 525nm, and 465 nm, respectively, then the camera would be calibrated suchthat the camera would use 94.9% of the luminaire's red LED output and5.1% of the luminaire's blue LED output, with the detailed calculationsshown in Appendix 4.

Along with providing for calibrating for relative color intensity andhue, the presently disclosed systems and methods also provide for orenable maintaining constant light output intensity, or brightness of thelight, regardless of the color(s) being mixed. This process is referredto herein as intensity or brightness compensation. As an example ofintensity compensation, consider a luminaire that is comprised of red,green, and blue LEDs each of which is powered though a separate controlchannel in the controller, such as a conventional DMX-IT 512 controller,and during operation draws a total of 3 Watts (W) of power (1 W percolor, that is 1 W per channel) total. Starting with full power (1 W) tothe red LED, the goal of this example is to mix colors to achieve ayellow color. For this example, the ratio of red, green, and bluepickups on the camera sensor, each to each other is 1:1:1 and thewavelengths of light recognized by each color of the pickups matches thewavelengths of each color emitted by the LEDs, respectively. As anexample of a conventional mixing to achieve a yellow color, 1 W of greenwould be added to the original 1 W of red, and would result in 2 W oftotal power consumption, and with a resulting yellow color that would betwice as bright or twice as intense as each of the constituent colorsred and green. In the presently disclosed system and method, however,intensity of the resulting light, or total power consumption ismaintained not solely through the addition of a second light to thefirst or base light, but rather by the combined, preferably simultaneousaddition of the second light and subtraction of the base light at thesame rate of power change, respectively, to achieve the desired hue ofthe resulting light. More specifically, the simultaneous addition andsubtraction of the constituent lights is achieved by simultaneously, andat the same rate of change (W/second), reducing the power to the basecolor LED and increasing the power to the second color LED. For thepurpose of the present disclosure this combined addition and subtractionof light output is referred to as “crossfading”. For instance, in anexample of a preferred embodiment crossfading process, mixing red andgreen to yield a yellow that is 50% red and 50% green is achieved bycrossfading output between red and green LEDs (which results fromsimultaneously increasing power to the green channel and decreasingpower to the red channel at the same rate), (or by whatever combinationof output from the LEDs is necessary to achieve the red and green asseen by the camera, once intensity calibrated, as described herein). Bythis crossfading, equal parts of red and green are mixed (after theinitial intensity calibration) and total power consumption is maintainedat 1 W. Thus, use of the presently disclosed system and method in thisexample of mixing to yellow means that the yellow would be produce with0.5 W of power to the red LED(s) and 0.5 W of power to the green LED(s).In this example, total power to the constituent LEDs is maintainedconstant during the entire process of color mixing from red to yellow,and the resulting yellow would have the same brightness as each of theconstituent colors.

Alternative Desaturation

In addition to the color compensation and cross fading processembodiments referred to above, the presently disclosed systems andmethods also provide for and enable a method of desaturation describedin detail herein and referred to as alternative desaturation.Conventional desaturation typically employs unused colors and adds thosecolors to the used colors in amounts that would result in white and thuswould desaturate the used color(s) to some predetermined amount ordegree. For example, to conventionally desaturate a fully saturated redcolor, unused color from green and blue LEDs would be added to the red.As the amount of green and blue is added to the red, the red colorbecomes increasingly desaturated, up to full desaturation, when thelight output of each of the blue and green LEDs is increased up to andequals the light output of the red LEDs. As is well known, an equalcombination of red, green, and blue theoretically results in ahuman-perceived output of white. In contrast to this conventional way ofdesaturating a base color, the presently disclosed system and methoddesaturate a base color light while maintaining the light outputbrightness/intensity at a constant value and accomplish the desaturationwith a high quality white light, as described below.

Another aspect of the presently described systems and processes relateto the color white, more specifically, use of a high quality white todesaturate primary or mixed colors. In this field, an industry term,color rendering index (CRI) has been used to characterize the quality ofwhite light in some contexts. For example, for a specific colorilluminated by sunlight, the CRI provides a way of measuring orcomparing how that specific color looks under a specific, artificiallighting condition as compared to how that color looks under sunlight.For the purpose of the present systems and processes, use of highquality light is preferred when white light is used, and with whitephosphor LED-based light considered to be high or the highest quality ofartificial white light, as compared to white light produced from mixingRGB light. As used herein the term “high quality white light” refers toa phosphor-corrected white, or white light that is emitted from aphosphor white LED.

Additionally, in a preferred embodiment, the phosphor-corrected,high-CRI white would not be produced by a single phosphor-correctedwhite LED but rather would be the result of combining at least two suchLEDs, each with a different correlated color temperature (CCT) (i.e.,Kelvin temperature). As used herein, a combination of two differentKelvin, phosphor-white LEDs, each with a different Kelvin temperature isreferred to as hybrid white. Use of such different white LEDs isincluded in the presently described systems and processes. Preferablyone of phosphor white LEDs is chosen such that its light output isskewed toward a warm tungsten type or hue of light and the otherphosphor white LED's light output is skewed toward a higher Kelvintemperature white, that is, a cooler white such as found at midday undernatural lighting conditions. The warmer white is preferably a 3000Kwhite and the cooler white is a 6000K white. Thus, for instance, todesaturate a fully saturated red through a preferred embodiment of thepresently disclosed systems and methods, white would be achieved not bythe addition of green, and/or blue but rather by crossfading between thefully saturated red and a Kelvin-adjustable, phosphor-corrected whitecomprised of two or more phosphor-corrected white LEDs, and with theresulting white color being a predetermined Kelvin temperature whitechosen according to the artistic effect the user/director wants toproduce.

The physical embodiment of the FIG. 8 user interface 170 used in thepresently disclosed systems and methods employs the aforementionedmethods of color compensation and rendition in such a way that isspecific on a per-camera basis for any camera, be it digital or analog,and regardless of whether it is a still picture camera or a motionpicture camera. In typical uses in this field, multiple cameras areused, with each camera, or each camera model having unique sensitivityto red, green and blue light sources. As will be appreciated by thoseskilled in this field, and in order to achieve uniform results in termsof color hue, brightness and saturation, each camera must also becalibrated or normalized, each relative to the other in order to achieverealistic and uniform results. An example of a preferred cameracalibration process for a two camera system is provided in Appendix 4,although other methods of calibration may be used as described above.

In one embodiment or example of the presently disclosed systems andprocesses, the user inputs the make and model of the specific camera tobe used, or collects the relevant data corresponding to the specificcamera to be used. Then, that camera's specific data/information ispreferably stored in the form of a lookup table in the controller'smemory or in a remote memory, for example. This is one preferred way thecamera's relevant information can be obtained and used for the purposesof color compensation, rendition and desaturation. Alternatively, aspecific camera's specifications could be determined through a feedbacksystem, in which the camera's specification data is fed to thecontroller, and at which point the controller could either then use alookup table that was predefined with those specs or could, in real-timedetermine the camera's specifications. These are two exemplary methodsfor obtaining camera specifications and related data. As will beappreciated by those skilled in this field, once the controller has beenprogrammed or provided with the identity of the camera is being used,that camera's settings can be optionally input into the controller,either manually or through a conventional feedback system. Thesesettings include, but are not limited to the white balance of thecamera. With this information, the controller of the presently disclosedsystem and method can then be operated by the user to calibrate,compensate, desaturate and render colors.

The systems and processes according to the present disclosure overcomethe drawbacks of known artificial light correction systems and processesby maintaining the intensity level of the light when fading from onecolor to another, and/or when saturating or desaturating a color. Thisis achieved is by gradually lowering the intensity of the original colorwhile mixing, that is, while the intensity of the added color isincreased until the desired color is reached. Also, once the desiredcolor has been reached or set, the light intensity can be dimmed orraised without changing the color.

This presently disclosed compensated color mixing process works for bothcolor-mixing as well as for blending of white colors. When mixing RGBand blending with white, the present systems and processes preferablymix RGB light with two or more high quality, Kelvin adjustable white,that is, high CRI white, LED-sourced light.

While conventional color mixing systems and processes provide high, butoften uneven light output, i.e., brightness, for a chosen mixed color,the presently described systems and processes are directed to consistentbrightness regardless of the chosen color, desaturated or not, andprovide the best possible known white light when desaturating.

Color Mixing with Brightness Compensation

The present systems and processes mix red, green and blue LED-sourcedlight with brightness compensation. Although typical, conventional RGBmixing alters the brightness while color adjustments are made, thepreferred present process balances the mix so that the combinedbrightness of the mixed color light preferably is initially set to bethe brightness of one of the constituent colors. This is accomplished bychoosing a power, such as the power to the LEDs of one of theconstituent light channels, and then decreasing the power to thatchannel as the power to the other constituent channel(s) is raised fromzero power to the power required to achieve the desired, mixed light. Inan example where all 3 of R, G and B are mixed in this way, the power tothe three channels of all three colors is combined to equal to the powerof one channel, e.g., the power of the first channel, as if that firstchannel were producing 100% output while the other channels produces 0%output.

As an example of compensated RGB color mixing according to the presentprocess, consider one of the constituent colors of the desired color tobe pure red. In this example, the red channel would be on at apredesignated or “full” power, which for this example would be one watt(1 W) of power output to the red LED. To change the red color to anothercolor, for example, yellow, the light from the green channel isintroduced, that is, power is supplied to the channel that is input tothe green LED. Conventional color mixing methods simply add green, inthis example, up to 1 W of green, without subtracting red. For thisexample, the conventional method results in increased brightness, thatis 1 W of red plus 1 W of green, which would be 2 W of total power tothe LEDs and produce a yellow brightness corresponding to 2 W total,with the yellow intensity double or about double the brightness of theconstituent colors. In the preferred present process, the colors red andgreen are cross-faded, and the total power output is maintained at apredetermined value, such as 1 W as in the above example. The ratio ofred to green in the final, yellow color mix would be the same in boththe conventional process and the present conventional process. However,in the conventional process the total power would be 2 W, but in thepresent process the total power to the LEDs would be 1 W. In theconventional process the resulting yellow would be twice as bright asthe resulting yellow in the present process.

Whichever of the two or three red, blue and green colors are mixed inthe present process, the total power output would be maintained at aconstant level, such as 1 W. Considering a continuation of color mixingthrough the color spectrum with the third channel, blue, mixed withgreen, the power of blue could be increased from 0% to full power andsimultaneously the power of green could be decreased from full power to0%, in the same way as in the red to green crossfading example. In theseexamples, the term color spectrum refers to the well-known color wheel,typically represented as a circle, starting at red, and continuingthrough green and blue, and then continuing to and terminating at red,the starting point. For the purpose of the present systems andprocesses, the process of maintaining a constant total output powerduring and at the completion of color mixing is referred to ascompensated RGB color mixing.

A preferred process of RGB color mixing employs an algorithm that usessix-channels. The exemplary 6-channel algorithm is provided in FIGS.18A, 18B, 18C, and 18D. Modification of the 6-channel algorithm for adifferent number of channels, such as 2, 4 or 8 is within the skill ofone skilled in this field. Also, modification of any such algorithm foruse with other operating systems and applications is also within theskill of a person of ordinary skill in this field. For example, thefirst (or, in some applications, the only) control provides coarseadjustment from red to red in a circular pattern, going through theentire spectrum of RGB. A preferred system and process also includes useof a conventional console, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and describedabove, having a total of 256 increments corresponding to the entire RGBspectrum. With the control value set at 0 with this controller, red willbe the resulting color. As the control value is increased from 0 to 255(the maximum value), red fades to green and then to blue and then backto red, at 255. A second control could be used to provide fineadjustment of the color mixing, such as a second control that wouldprovide increments between each adjacent integer of 256 increments ofgross color control. For example, a second control could provide 10increments of control (i.e., power or current to the LED(s), such asbetween settings 200 and 201, i.e., 200.1, 200.2, etc.

Color Mixing and Desaturation

The present systems and processes also enable desaturation of red, greenand blue LED light, and desaturation in combination with color mixing.These color mixing and desaturation processes preferably use two or moreindependently adjustable phosphor-white LEDs. In this context the termadjustable refers to and means adjustable Kelvin temperature. In oneexample, with the control value set at 0, 3000K white light will be setas the output color. As the control value is increased from 0 to 255,the 3000K white light would change to 6000K white light, at which pointthe control value would be at full value. The desaturation/saturationaspect of this combined color mixing and desaturating process preferablyuses a separate 16-bit control, but could use an 8-bit control, althoughthe resolution would not be as good as with a 16-bit system and control.At the control value for white light set at 0, such as in this example,fully saturated color will result from the light produced by one of theprimary color LEDs or the mixed light produced by mixing light from twoor more of the LEDs. As the control value of the white light isincreased from 0 to 255, fully saturated color would be crossfaded tofully desaturated color, through simultaneous decreasing power to thebase color LED(s) and increasing power to the white LED(s) and at thesame rate, similar to the way in which crossfading is described above.Also, in this example of desaturation of a mixed color, a third 16-bitcontrol, referred to as the master control, would be included in thecontrol circuit and would be used to adjust the power output of theresulting compensated and desaturated light to a desired level ofbrightness by controlling the power to the LEDs.

In an exemplary process, the following general steps would be taken, notnecessarily in this order, and could be taken for any of manycombinations of chosen primary or mixed RGB colors and of any chosendegree of saturation, of many degrees of desaturation. First, an initialor base RGB color is chosen and then, preferably, the Kelvin temperaturecorresponding to the base color is determined or chosen. Next, a desiredor resulting saturation/desaturation level/degree is then chosen. Itwill be appreciated by those skilled in this field that when producingfully saturated colors, there will be no output from the white LEDemitters. This process is in contrast to conventional desaturationprocesses, where during desaturation of mixed RGB colors, the unusedcolors from the RGB LEDs are used rather than white light fromdedicated, or separate white LEDs. For example, during conventionaldesaturating of pure red, light from each of the green and blue LEDs isadded equally until the appearance of white light is achieved. Thepresent process eliminates conventional desaturation in RGB color mixingand instead uses targeted, adjustable Kelvin temperature, high qualitywhite light from dedicated white LEDs. The high quality white light isused in favor of adding red, green and/or blue to desaturate.

In one preferred embodiment, color mixing and desaturation of RGBLED-based light with two or more independently Kelvin adjustablephosphor-white LEDs is used. In this embodiment compensated RGB iscombined with adjustable desaturation. In this embodiment the RGB colorcompensation process as described above is used to create the desiredcolor and to maintain the brightness of the resulting color at constant,predetermined level, or to change the brightness of the resulting colorby changing the power to the constituent LEDs at a uniform rate,regardless of the color chosen. In this context the resulting color isreferred to as a locked group, just as the Kelvin-adjustable whitecolor, as described above, is referred to as a locked group. Consider anexample in which the chosen RGB color is a red, at 1 W of power, and thechosen white color is 3000K, also at 1 W of power. In this example asingle adjustment of the controller would cause crossfading of theoverall brightness of the red with the overall brightness of the whitelight, with the total power to the LEDs maintained at one watt. Startingat 100%, full power (e.g., 1 W) red, then power of the white LEDs wouldbe zero percent power, i.e., zero watts. Crossfading the two lockedgroups would result in desaturating red from fully saturated to adesired desaturation value, as power to red would be decreasedsimultaneously as power to the white LED(s) would be increased at thesame rate. Crossfading could continue until full power white resulted,at which point the red would be at zero percent, i.e., zero watts. Thispreferred process uses high quality, Kelvin-adjustable white light todesaturate the chosen compensated RGB color light. This is in contrastto conventional desaturation processes that employ RGB colors todesaturate the chosen RGB color. The conventional process results inpoor and inconsistent desaturated color due to insufficientrepresentation of some of the colors in the spectrum, also results inslight variations in RGB color over the lifespan of the RGB emitters.

Another conventional method of desaturation adds a single white channelof light to the base color light, and this conventional desaturationmethod is referred to as a conventional, four-color method. In thisfour-color conventional method a single, i.e., non-Kelvin adjustablewhite channel is added to desaturate the chosen RGB color along with theunused red, green and/or blue. The single white channel providesadditional desaturation in comparison to the conventional desaturationmethod that uses only otherwise unused RGB light. The four-colorconventional desaturation method is in contrast to the presentdesaturation method in that the present, preferred embodiment processuses five colors: red, green, blue, white and white. Producing Kelvinadjustable white requires at least two channels of white light. Thus,the presently preferred desaturation process requires at least a fivecolors, does not use the unused colors from color mixing and the whitelight is Kelvin adjustable white light.

Just as red, green, and blue provide relatively accurate saturatedcolors such as, for example, the type needed for a movie scene showingan automobile interior driving down Las Vegas Boulevard, the use of twoor more full spectrum phosphor-based light sources such as high CRI(color rendering index) white LEDs offers more appropriate and oftendesired adjustable white, which can be calibrated to the sensitivity andsettings of the camera, as described above.

Thus, the presently disclosed desaturation methods preferably employ twoor more phosphor-white LEDs to desaturate the base-color, by diminishingthe intensity of the base-color and simultaneously increasingly theintensity of the white color until the desired desaturation is achieved.Continued decreasing of the base color intensity and increasing thewhite color intensity would result in completely replacing the basecolor when the base color is to be fully desaturated.

Preferred Color Compensation and Desaturation Processes that may beEmployed instead of Camera Adjustments

The present color compensation and desaturation systems processes haveapplicability to the film and television industries in that they it maybe used to control the recording and playback of scenes illuminated withartificial light instead of controlling or partially controlling theartificial light solely with the camera setting(s). In this aspect ofthe presently described systems and processes, two or more significantlydifferent CCTs of phosphor-white LED sources such as LEDs that produce3000K and 6000K white light, respectively, are blended with each otherto provide adjustable, full spectrum white light. The ability todiminish the base-color combined with the controlled increase of thewhite light from the two or more white channels results in desaturatedlight that can be calibrated to suit a particular camera's sensors andwhite balance settings.

While the human eye has the ability to correct for different colorsituations and create white, cameras do not have that ability. Theselection of cameras is wide and varies from professional grade systemsto DSLR Prosumer systems.

For example, Arri Alexa brand cameras and technology presently areconsidered to be the industry standard in digital motion picture camerasystems. However, in real world applications the resulting imagesproduced by Arri Alexa brand cameras have a slight green cast. It isbelieved that the camera's red sensor has a relatively difficult timeaccurately capturing the red area of the light spectrum. As is known tothose skilled in this field, a digital imaging technician (DIT) cancompensate for this green cast by applying a −3 to −5 green correctionon an Arri Alexa camera's settings, in order for the camera to output aneutral white color.

Also, in the view of some in this field, Sony brand digital motionpicture cameras have a slight magenta cast to their resulting images. Asis also known in this field, a DIT may make adjustments for RED in thewarm/cool settings in a Sony brand camera to correct this problem. Thistype of correction, that is, correction/calibration/adjustment to thecamera settings is needed to correct the camera output so that the whiteor neutral output on a vectorscope would appear to the human eye likethe color white would appear to the human eye under natural lightingconditions. The present color compensation systems and processes enableadjustments to the luminaire(s) so that no adjustment to the camerasettings is needed to address these problems associated with knowncameras.

Although specific embodiments of the disclosure have been described,various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, andequivalents are also encompassed within the scope of invention as setforth in the claims.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modificationsand changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broaderspirit and scope of invention as set forth in the claims.

APPENDIX 1 LiteNet Protocol R.2.x James David Smith. SoundsculptureIncorporated Rev By Date Description 2.1 JDS Initial proposal. 2.2 JDS20 Apr. 2017 Combined compensation on/off. normal/test, etc., intosingle Mode command. 2.3 JDS 22 Apr. 2017 Changed byte order form H:L toL:H to accommodate unions/structures in c code. Added Modes Table. 2.4JDS 24 Apr. 2017 Added notes that GET messages omit parameter bytes inpayload, making them non-symetrical with GET and REPLY. Added degrees F.sensor, so temperature can be queried for C. or F. Added notes on sensorreply data format (16-bit signed integer, 10ths of unit). moved ALL_OFF.ALL_FULL. ALL_TOGGLE to Modes. along with NORMAL (w/ compensation) andRAW (comp disabled). Added GET/SET/REPLY_SENSOR_CALIBRATION to fine-tunesensor accuracy in individual dimmer units. 2.5 JDS 27 Apr. 2017 Addedsensor read types for LIVE, MAX. and MIN. Added RESET_SENSOR_MINMAX toclear MAX and MIN values (also cleared on power-up). JDS 27 Apr. 2017Highlighted messages are fully implemented and functional, prereleasef/w v0.010. 2.6 JDS  8 May 2017 When dimmer receives SET_OFFSET_6message. values of zero are ignored. previous calibration value notoverwritten by zero. Format Overview Byte# ptr 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 0 0 1 01 0 1 0 1 0x55 start byte 2 1 S A A A A A A A Device Address (0 =global. 1-127) 3 2 −S V V V V V V V Protocol Version (0-127) 4 3 S T T MM M M M Message: Source(0.1), Message type (0-3). Message (0-32) 5 4 d dd d d d d d Data payload, packer length is variable and will bedetermined 6 5 d d d d d d d d Data payload length is not limited to an8-bit (or any other) length. 7 . . Multi-byte data will sendleast-significant bytes first n . . as LLLLLLLL followed by HHHHHHHH.GET messages omit parameter bytes but include specifiers n + l CH CH CHCH CH CH CH CH 8-bit Checksum, method TBD Start byte value 0x55 supportsMicrochip (and others) auto-band function, which reads a series of 0x55bytes to determine baud rate. LiteNet devices will effectively ignoreany length stream of this character Message Types 0-127 Are Master ->Slave, Types 128-255 are Slave -> Master. S (byte 4, bit 7) 0 MASTER(messages from UI to dimmers) 1 SLAVE (response messages from dimmers toUI) For packet parsing and integrity checking, S is duplicated in byte2, bit7, and inverted S is in byte 3, bit 7. TT (byte 4, bits5-6):Message Type: 0 SET_DIMMERS (SD) 1 GET_DIMMERS (GD) 2 SET_ COMMAND (SC)3 GET_COMMAND (GC) TTMMMMM (byte 4, bits 0-7) S T T M M M M M M->S M = 0SD = 0 0x0 Reserved 0 0 0x1 Reserved 0 0 0x2 Reserved 0 0 0x3 Reserved 00 0x4 SET_6 Set 6-channel dimmer levels 0 0 0x5 SET_8 Set 8-channeldimmer levels 0 0 0x6-0xF Reserved for additional SET_DIMMER commands 00 0x6 SET_CH1 0 GD = 1 0x0 Reserved 0 1 0x1 Reserved 0 1 0x2 Reserved 01 0x3 Reserved 0 1 0x4 GET_6 Request: dimmer levels of 6-channel dimmer0 1 0x5 GET_8 Request: dimmer levels of 8-channel dimmer 0 1 0x6-0xFRequest: levels for additional SET_DIMMER commands S->M S = 1 SD = 0 0x0Response: Reserved 1 0 0x1 Response: Reserved 1 0 0x2 Response: Reserved1 0 0x3 Response: Reserved 1 0 0x4 REPLY_6 Response: dimmer levels of6-channel dimmer 1 0 0x5 REPLY_8 Response: current levels of 8-channeldimmer 1 0 0x6-0xF Response: levels for any additional SET_DIMMERcommands M->S M = 0 SD = 0 0x10 Reserved 0 0 0x11 Reserved 0 0 0x12Reserved 0 0 0x13 Reserved 0 0 0x14 SET_OFFSET_6 Set 6-channel colorcorrection offsets 0 0 0x15 SET_OFFSET_8 Set 8-channel color correctionoffsets 0 0 0x16-x1F Reserved for additional SET_OFFSET commands 0 GD =1 0x10 Reserved 0 1 0x11 Reserved 0 1 0x12 Reserved 0 1 0x13 Reserved 01 0x14 GET_OFFSET_6 Set 6-channel color correction offsets 0 1 0x15GET_OFFSET_8 Set 8-channel color correction offsets 0 1 0x16-x1FReserved for additional GET_OFFSET commands S->M S = 1 SD = 0 0x10Response: Reserved 1 0 0x11 Response: Reserved 1 0 0x12 Response:Reserved 1 0 0x13 Response: Reserved 1 0 0x14 REPLY_OFFSET_6 Set6-channel color correction offsets 1 0 0x15 REPLY_OFFSET_8 Set 6-channelcolor correction offsets 1 0 0x16-x1F Reserved for additionalREPLY_OFFSET commands S T T M M M M M M->S M = 0 SC = 2 0x0 SAVE_ALLSave all settings in NV memory (may not be required) 0 2 0x1SET_FACTORY_DEFAULTS 0 2 0x2 SET_ADDR Set main device address (deviceID) 0 2 0x3 SET_BAUD Set communications baud rate 0 2 0x4 Reserved 0 20x5 RESET_SENSOR_MINMAX 0 2 0x6 SET_GROUP_ADDR. Followed by 2 bytes: IDSlot (0-8) 0 2 0x7 SET_MODE. Followed by single payload byterepresenting mode. 0 2 0x8 SET_SENSOR_CALIBRATION Set offsets 1 00x9-0xF Reserved for additional SET commands M = 0 GC = 3 0x0 Reserved 03 0x1 Reserved 0 3 0x2 GET_ADDR message is header with no payload 0 30x3 GET_BAUD request communications baud rate 0 3 0x4 GET_STATUS 0 3 0x5GET_SENSOR (packet details below) 0 3 0x6 GET_GROUP_ADDR 0 3 0x7GET_MODE request mode. See Modes table. 3 0x8 GET_SENSOR_CALIBRATIONrequest offsets 1 0 0x9-0xF Reserved for additional GET commands S->M S= 1 SC = 2 0x0 Reserved 1 2 0x1 Reserved 1 2 0x2 REPLY_ADDR response isheader with no payload 1 2 0x3 REPLY_BAUD response with communicationsbaud rate 1 2 0x4 REPLY_STATUS 1 2 0x5 REPLY_SENSOR 1 2 0x6REPLY_GROUP_ADDR 1 2 0x7 REPLY_MODE response with mode. See Modes table.0x8 REPLY_SENSOR_CALIBRATION response with sensor offsets. 1 0 0x9-0xFReserved for additional REPLY commands Payload for SET/REPLY_6 andSET/REPLY_OFFSET_6: Word data in payload will be sent low-byte first.GET_6 and GET_OFFSET_6 omit this payload. shortening the packet by 16bytes. Byte# 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0  5 L L L L L L L L Daylight Dimmer, LOWByte  6 H H H H H H H H Daylight Dimmer, HIGH Byte  7 L L L L L L L LTungsten Dimmer, LOW Byte  8 H H H H H H H H Tungsten Dimmer, HIGH Byte 9 L L L L L L L L Red Dimmer, LOW Byte 10 H H H H H H H H Red Dimmer,HIGH Byte 11 L L L L L L L L Green Dimmer, LOW Byte 12 H H H H H H H HGreen Dimmer, HIGH Byte 13 L L L L L L L L Blue Dimmer, LOW Byte 14 H HH H H H H H Blue Dimmer, HIGH Byte 15 L L L L L L L L Amber Dimmer, LOWByte 16 H H H H H H H H Amber Dimmer, HIGH Byte SET_ADDR Message:GET/REPLY_ADDR omits this payload. making the message just the headerand checksum. The address is in header byte 2. Byte# 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5 0DEV_ID 7-bit primary device address, not changeable by user (0-127).SET/REPLY_Group_ADDR Message: GET_GROUP_ADDR omits the second payloadbyte (byte 6), shortening the packet by 1 byte. Byte# 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 50 0 0 0 0 GROUP_ID_SLOT Group ID Slot Number (0-7) 5 0 DEV_ID 7-bitdevice ID saved in Slot Number (0-127, 0 = Slot Not Used) To accomodateunknown addition sensors in future versions, the date payload for SENSORmessages will start with a SENSOR ID: SET/REPLY_SENSOR Message:GET_SENSOR omits the last 2 payload bytes (byte 6,7), shortening thepacket by 2 bytes. Byte# 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5 SENSOR_ID Sensor ID 6 L L L LL L L L Sensor Value, High Byte 7 H H H H H H H H Sensor Value, Low ByteSensor IDs: These assignments can be treated as: Byte# 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 5READ TYPE SENSOR_ID Sensor ID (0-64). READ TYPE: 00 = LIVE, 01 = MAX  048 V Input voltage (nominal 48 V) Live Sensor Values (READ TYPE 0)  1 24V Regulated voltage (nominal 24 V)  2 A Current sensor (A)  3 deg C.Temperature sensor (degress C.)  4 deg F. Temperature sensor (degressF.)  5-63 reserved for future sensor types  64 48 V MAX - highestrecorded since powerup  65 24 V  66 A  67 deg C.  68 deg F.  69-127reserved for future sensor types 128 48 V MIN - lowest recorded sincepowerup 129 24 V 130 A 131 deg C. 132 deg. F. 133-192 reserved forfuture sensor types 193-255 reserved for future READ TYPE (AVERAGE?)Sensor data value is a 16-bit signed integer in 10ths of a unit.Examples: Response to Sensor 1 (regulated V): 239-23.9 VDC Response toSensor 2 (current): 15-1.5 A Response to Sensor 5 (degrees F.):1026-102.6 F. REPLY_STATUS Message returns a 2-byte payload providing upto 16 status flags: GET_STATUS carries no payload and is 2 bytes shorterthan REPLY_STATUS. Byte0 Bit0 LEDS commanded to be 1 = ON 0 = OFF Bit1Input Voltage Normal (48 V −/−2.0 V) 1 = OUT 0 = OK Bit2 RegulatedVoltage Normal (24 V +/−0.2 V) 1 = OUT 0 = OK Bit3 Current safe (lessthan 3 A, 72 W) 1 = OUT 0 = OK Bit4 Temp safe (less than 85 C./185 F.) 1= OUT 0 = OK Bit5 Color Compensation (OFFSET) 1 = ON 0 = OFF Bit6reserved 0 Bit7 reserved 0 0x20 RETURN Status - two byte response -cont. Byte1 Bit0 Number of Channels (bits 0-3) 60 Min 1, Max 16 Bit1 ″b1 Bit2 ″ b2 Bit3 ″ b3 Bit4 reserved 0 Bit5 reserved 0 Bit6 reserved 0Bit7 reserved 0 Modes Table:  0 NORMAL operation with dimmer levelcompensation (OFFSET) active.  1 RAW DIMMER mode with compensationdisabled.  2 ALL_OFF sets all dimmers at zero, overrides dimmer levels. 3 ALL_FULL sets all dimmers at full, overrides dimmer levels.  4ALL_TOGGLE toggles between ALL_OFF and ALL_FULL. If switching fromNORMAL or RAW, first toggle state is a ALL_OFF.  5 reserved (foradditional modes, i.e. HSL)  6 reserved  7 reserved  8 TEST MODE 1  9reserved (future addition of other test modes) 10 reserved 11 reserved12 reserved 13 reserved 14 reserved 15

APPENDIX 2 Calibrating to Sensor (Intensity) (1/3) CAMERA 1 S₁ = Ratioof Sensors = (R_(S1), G_(S1), B_(S1)) R_(S1) = 3 G_(S1) = 1 B_(S1) = 1.5W₁ = Weight of Sensors = (1/R_(S1), 1/G_(S1) , 1/B_(S1) ) = (R_(W1),G_(W2), B_(W1)) R_(W1) = 1/R_(S1) = ⅓ G_(W1) = 1/G_(S1) = 1/1 = 1 B_(W1)= 1/B_(S1) = 1/1.5 = ⅔ CAMERA 2 S₂ = Ratio of Sensors = (R_(S2), G_(S2),B_(S2)) R_(S2) = 1 G_(S2) = 1 B_(S2) = 2 W = Weight of Sensors =(1/R_(S2), 1/G_(S2), 1/B_(S2)) = (R_(W2), G_(W2), B_(W2)) R_(W2) =1/R_(S2) = 1/1 = 1 G_(W2) = 1/G_(S2) = 1/1 = 1 B_(W2) = 1/B_(S2) = 1/2 =½ LUMINAIRE P = Power of Colors = (R, G, B) R = 1 W G = 1 W B = 1 W P₁ *= Weighted Power of Colors, Camera 1 = P₁ = (RR_(W1), GG_(W1), BB_(W1))R₁* = ⅓ W G₁* = 1 W B₁* = ⅔ W P₂* = Weighted Power of Colors, Camera 2 =P₂ = (RR_(W2), GG_(W2), BB_(W2)) R₂* = 1 W G₂* = 1 W B₂* = ½ W ∴ Eachcolor should be attenuated as prescribed by P*, the “weighted power,”based on the ratio of the sensors.

APPENDIX 3 Calibrating to Sensor (Hue) (2/3) CAMERA 1 Wavelengths ofColor (Sensor) R_(C1) = 650 nm G_(C1) = 510 nm B_(C1) = 475 nm CAMERA 2Wavelengths of Color (Sensor) R_(C2) = 620 nm G_(C2) = 520 nm B_(C2) =470 nm LUMINAIRE Wavelengths of Color (Luminaire) R_(L) = 625 nm (1 W)G_(L) = 525 nm (1 W) B_(L) = 465 nm (1 W) Hue, Adjusted, Camera 1(Luminaire) (x = % of second color to add to create new color) R_(C1) =R_(L) + (B_(L)x) = 625 + (465x) = 650 → x = 0.053763 → R_(L) +0.0538B_(L) = 100% R_(L) + 5.38% B_(L) G_(C1) = G_(L) − (B_(L)x) = 525 −(465x) = 510 → x = 0.032258 → G_(L) + 0.0323B_(L) = 100% G_(L) + 3.23%B_(L) B_(C1) = B_(L) + (G_(L)x) = 465 + (525x) = 475 → x = 0.019048 →B_(L) + 0.0190G_(L) = 100% B_(L) + 1.90% G_(L) Hue, Adjusted, Camera 2(Luminaire) (x = % of second color to add to create new color) R_(C2) =R_(L) − (G_(L)x) = 625 − (525x) = 620 → x = 0.0095238 → R_(L) +0.0095G_(L) = 100% R_(L) + 0.95% G_(L) G_(C2) = G_(L) − (B_(L)x) = 525 −(465x) = 520 → x = 0.010753 → G_(L) + 0.018B_(L) = 100% G_(L) + 1.08%B_(L) B_(C2) = B_(L) + (G_(L)x) = 465 + (525x) = 470 → x = 0.0095238 →B_(L) + 0.0095G_(L) = 100% B_(L) + 0.95% G_(L)

APPENDIX 4 ALL CAMERA CALIBRATION (3/3) CAMERA 1 S₁ = Ratio of Sensors =(R_(S1), G_(S1), B_(S1)) R_(S1) = 3 G_(S1) = 1 B_(S1) = 1.5 W₁ = Weightof Sensors = (1/R_(S1), 1/G_(S1), 1/B_(S1)) = (R_(W1), G_(W1), B_(W1))R_(W1) = 1/R_(S1) = ⅓ G_(W1) =1/G_(S1) = 1/1 = 1 B_(W1) =1/B_(S1) =1/1.5 = ⅔ Wavelengths of Color (Sensor) R_(C1) = 650 nm G_(C1) = 510 nmB_(C1) = 475 nm CAMERA 2 S₂ = Ratio of Sensors = (R_(S2), G_(S2),B_(S2)) R_(S2) = 1 G_(S2) = 1 B_(S2) = 2 W = Weight of Sensors =(1/R_(S2), 1/G_(S2), 1/B_(S2)) = (R_(W2), G_(W2), B_(W2)) R_(W2) =1/R_(S2) = 1/1 = 1 G_(W2) = 1/G_(S2) = 1/1 = 1 B_(W2) = 1/B_(S2) = 1/2 =½ Wavelengths of Color (Sensor) R_(C2) = 620 nm G_(C2) = 520 nm B_(C2) =470 nm LUMINAIRE P = Power of Colors = (R, G, B) R = 1 W G = 1 W B = 1 WWavelengths of Color (Luminaire) R_(L) = 625 nm (1 W) G_(L) = 525 nm (1W) B_(L) = 465 nm (1 W) P₁* = Weighted Power of Colors, Camera 1 = P₁ =(RR_(W1), GG_(W1), BB_(W1)) R₁* = ⅓ W G₁* = 1 W B₁* = ⅔ W P₂* = WeightedPower of Colors, Camera 2 = P₂ = (RR_(W2), GG_(W2), BB_(W2)) R₂* = 1 WG₂* = 1 W B₂* = ½ W Hue, Adjusted, Camera 1 (Luminaire) R_(C1) = 100%R_(L) + 5.38% B_(L) G_(C1) = 100% G_(L) + 3.23% B_(L) B_(C1) = 100%B_(L) + 1.90% G_(L) Hue, Adjusted, Camera 2 (Luminaire) R_(C2) = 100%R_(L) + 0.95% G_(L) G_(C2) = 100% G_(L) + 1.08% B_(L) B_(C2) = 100%B_(L) + 0.95% G_(L) Intensity, Adjusted, Camera 1 (Luminaire) (x = % ofsecond color to add to create new color) (y = attenuation factor tomaintain constant power output) R_(C1) = R_(L) + (B_(L)x) = 625 + (465x)= 650 → x = 0.053763 y → 1y + xy = 1 → y(1 + x) = 1 → y = 1/(1 + x) → y= 0.949 R_(C1) = 0.949W [R_(L)] + 0.051 W [B_(L)] (1 W total) R_(C1)* =(R_(C1))(R₁*) = (0.949 W [R_(L)] + 0.051 W [B_(L)])(1/3) = (0.3163 W[R_(L)] + 0.017W [B_(L)]) Intensity, Adjusted, Camera 2 (Luminaire) (x =% of second color to add to create new color) (y = attenuation factor tomaintain constant power output) R_(C2) = R_(L) − (G_(L)x = 625 − (525x)= 620 → x = 0.0095238 y → 1y + xy = 1 → y(1 + x) = 1 → y = 1/(1 + x) → y= 0.991 R_(C2) = 0.991 W [R_(L)] + 0.009 W [G_(L)] (1 W total) R_(C2)* =(R_(C2))(R₂*) = (0.991 W [R_(L)] + 0.009 W [G_(L)])(1) = (0.991 W[R_(L)] + 0.009 W [G_(L)])

The invention claimed is:
 1. A process for desaturating a base colorlight of an LED sourced light comprising: providing a base color lightat a first light intensity; providing a first Kelvin temperature whitecolor light from a first LED emitter at a first LED light intensity;providing a second Kelvin temperature white color light from a secondLED emitter at a second LED light intensity; crossfading the firstKelvin temperature white color light with the second Kelvin temperaturewhite color light to produce a third Kelvin temperature white colorlight at a third LED light intensity; and, crossfading the third Kelvintemperature white color light with the base color light to produce adesaturated base color light at the first light intensity.
 2. Theprocess of claim 1 wherein the step of providing the base color light isby providing light from at least one LED emitter.
 3. The process ofclaim 1 wherein the step of providing the base color light is byproviding light from red, green, blue and amber LED emitters.
 4. Theprocess of claim 1 wherein the first Kelvin temperature white colorlight is about 3000K.
 5. The process of claim 1 wherein the secondKelvin temperature white color light is about 6000K.
 6. A process ofdesaturating a base color light of an LED sourced light to produce adesaturated base color light of the LED sourced light having apredetermined Kelvin temperature white light comprising: providing abase color light of an LED sourced light at a first intensity; providinga first white light from a first Kelvin-adjustable, phosphor-correctedwhite color emitting LED having a first Kelvin temperature; providing asecond white light from a second Kelvin-adjustable, phosphorcorrectedwhite color emitting LED having a second Kelvin temperature, the secondKelvin temperature is different from the first Kelvin temperature;mixing the first white light with the second white light to produce thepredetermined Kelvin temperature white; and, crossfading the base colorlight of the LED soured light and the predetermined Kelvin temperaturewhite to result in the desaturated base color of the LED sourced lightat about the base color light of the LED sourced light first intensity.7. The process of claim 6 wherein the first Kelvin Temperature is about3000K.
 8. The process of claim 6 wherein the second Kelvin temperatureis about 6000K.
 9. A process of mixing and desaturating LED sourcedlight to produce a mixed color, desaturated LED sourced lightcomprising: providing a mixed color, base LED sourced color light at amixed color, base light intensity; the step of providing the mixedcolor, base LED sourced color light comprising: providing an LED lightsource having constituent LED light sources, the constituent LED lightsources including red light emitting LEDs, green light emitting LEDs andblue light emitting LEDs; producing a first color of light at a firstintensity from a first selected one of the constituent LED lightsources; producing a second, different color of light at a secondintensity from a second selected one of the constituent LED lightsources; the second intensity lower than the first intensity; mixing thefirst color of light with the second color of light by increasing thesecond intensity and decreasing the first intensity until the resultingcolor of light is produced at the first intensity to result in the mixedcolor base light intensity; choosing a desired desaturation degree forthe mixed color base LED sourced RGB color light; [a] producing aKelvin-adjustable, phosphor-corrected white light by combining lightfrom first white color emitting phosphor-corrected LEDs with light fromsecond white color emitting phosphor-corrected LEDs, the first LEDs andthe second LEDs having different correlated color temperatures; and,crossfading the mixed color base LED sourced RGB color light with theKelvin-adjustable, phosphor-corrected white light to produce the mixedcolor, desaturated LED sourced light at an intensity at about the sameintensity as the mixed base color light intensity.
 10. The process ofmixing and desaturating LED sourced light of claim 9 wherein theconstituent LED light sources further include amber light emitting LEDs.11. The process of mixing and desaturating LED sourced light of claim 9wherein the constituent LEDs are positioned on a panel.
 12. The processof mixing and desaturating LED sourced light of claim 9 wherein theconstituent LEDs are included in an LED light string.
 13. The process ofmixing and desaturating light of claim 9 wherein increasing the secondintensity and decreasing the first intensity is by pulse widthmodulation control.
 14. The process of mixing and desaturating light ofclaim 9 wherein increasing the second intensity and decreasing the firstintensity is by duty cycle control of the constituent LED light sources.15. The process of mixing and desaturating light of claim 9 furtherincluding changing the mixed base color light intensity by changingpower to the constituent LEDs.